The Human Cannonball

What are you building down there in the dark?

Every night alone under candle light and spark

concealed in the ting tang of metals

and the melting of steel

If something should go wrong

we will have to carry you away

our only son.

Ladies and gentlemen

may I present to you not a lion in a cage

not a juggler or swallower of blades

but the Human Cannonball.

My sister was an acrobat

an artist of the swings

My father tamed the beasts

and was the master of the three circus rings

When my brother walked the tight rope

no one made a sound

but he tumbled in the spotlight

Echoes cried when he hit the ground

We'll miss you

I am the Human Cannonball

not a lion in your cage

not a juggler or swallower of blades

I will fly to painted stars