Best Carnies Poems

When I was young, I wanted to run away to the circus.  Then one day I realized the circus was life!  Are we not the clown, the strongman, the freak, the daredevil?  Is there not personal sorrow and the desperate search for...

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Tree Top Dancers
and Circus Clowns

The neighbors moved away. 
They said nothing to anyone, 
they just left. 
New people took the home. 
There was a big truck. 
It was full of boxes, 
and a TV. 

It was jam-packed with animals...
and cages and crates, 
and statutes of...
Greek...

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As the Dime Store sirens flared
bolts of irradiated invite,
my query was denied.
     Their pimp-striped pilots only moaned, 
     their lust fueled by encapsulated 
     stench carried only by toothless carnies 
  ...

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Spring is fast approaching; it's warm outside,
meaning the carnival will arrive soon.
In my youth, I'd watch carnies set up rides
while the popcorn popper whistled a tune.

I loved to ride on the merry-go-round:
it was like riding a galloping horse.
Nothing else ever felt as good to me:
having...

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In only a moment of maritime mirth
My ship's maiden voyage was missing at birth
The King's Royal Navy reduced me in rank
By flushing my ship in the place where it sank

I fell in the sea with no source of a boat
The swell I could see was...

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I suppose the prez is proud of his mealy-mouthed spokesman Carney.

('Carnies' are carnival touts famous for spewing a heap of blarney!)

I think I'm quite well-versed and understand the English language well

But when I hear his party-line spin on things, I get perturbed as hell!

Carney keeps...

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Time and Tides
                                          ...

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4. 
the sex-appeal of the telephone 
and the bugle of the carnies-breaking cock-crows 
are all harmonised seamlessly 

the noon in the blood 
is flowing along the river 

all the dialogues are covered 
with misspelling of men and women 

the tailors want to increase life 
cutting...

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Hearsay on what love is today
Lives stretched thin for parchment paper bridges
Twice over crossed
Trampled, trodden, lost hearts in clouds
While rain was wringing out my hair
Let down my gaurd
Tasting peppermint Chard ment to
Cling to a tree until my help arrived 
At mydestiney without you
Speak to me...

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I’ve got no beef with McDonald’s or Jack
‘n the Box weighing down American towns
with greasy sacks in thin hospital gowns.
They’re just a couple of clowns selling crack
to cavalier carnies who’d like fries with that
six thousand calorie corpulent noun
with a large diet Coke to wash it...

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They came in hot, and they came in hard.
What are they? Asked our strangest bard.
They were readily lead in by a lark bunting bird,
We had not a guess, not an idea, not a word. 

They were at the carnival fair, is true.
We rarely see the...

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The hum of the motors that run the rides,
watching cars on tracks going up and down.
Squeals and screams from all those children that ride,
scrambler, octopus, and merry-go-round.

From the excitement of the tilt-a-whirl,
to the view from atop the Ferris wheel.
Stealing kisses from your favorite girl,
how wonderful...

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Our Kitty’s allergic to peanuts,
Most don’t eat meat anymore,
Lynn and Tim are Vegans
Alex is a staunch carnivore.
Vegan, Veggies and carnies
All coming to visit for lunch
Sue was tearing her hair out
Planning feeding such a  bunch.

Our first family get together 
After more than two Covid years
Set...

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Two carnies 
Eighteen small town county fairs
Six furiously hot summer days.

Jax , boisterously handsome, kept the women entertained, 
While Grandpa Ralph picked items out of their diaper bags and purses.
If he had any conscience at all, he would say “no thank you to their tips”,
...

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Have I been too long at the fair?
by Michael R. Burch
 
Have I been too long at the fair?
The summer has faded,
the leaves have turned brown;
the Ferris wheel teeters . . .
not up, yet not down.
Have I been too long at the fair?
 
This is...

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