this high circus life has
its irrefutable laws
but clowns are sustained by
clowns less wounded in a
painting by Roualt
how it should ever be-
alas but I am here
where clowns roll off
the edge of the sky
and I begin to cry
since all their sawdust ways I
can not defend
or bind, protected in
my book of consolations
mary angela douglas 12 august 2001/31 may 2005
