Cirkus
Night: her sable dome scattered with
diamonds,
Fused my dust from a light year,
Squeezed me to her breast,
sowed me with carbon,
Strung my warp across time.
Gave me each a horse,
sunrise and graveyard,
Told me only I was her;
Bid me face the east closed
me in questions
Built the sky for my dawn . . .
Cleaned my feet of
mud, followed the empty
Zebra ride to the Cirkus,
Past a painted cage,
spoke to the paybox
Glove which wrote on my tongue -
Pushed me down a slide
to the arena,
Megaphonium fanfare.
In his cloak of words strode the
ringmaster
Bid me join the parade . . .
"Worship!" cried the clown, "I am a
TV.
Making bandsmen go clockwork,
See the slinky seal Cirkus
policeman;
Bareback ladies have fish."
Strongmen by his feet,
plate-spinning statesman,
Acrobatically juggling -
Bids his tamers go quiet
the tumblers
Lest the mirror stop turning . . .
Elephants forgot,
force-fed on stale chalk,
Ate the floors of their cages.
Strongmen lost
their hair, paybox collapsed and
Lions sharpened their teeth.
Gloves raced
round the ring, stallions stampeded
Pandemonium seesaw . . .
I ran for the
door, ringmasters shouted,
"All the fun of the Cirkus!"
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