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 pay box

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 T.V.

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, pay box 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!"