Circus,Circus: Upon Visiting the Ringling
Progress destroyed front porch hospitality,
Sunday drives in the country to see kin,
Thick newspapers and card catalogues.
These I’ll forgive or forget, whichever comes first,
But woe, it was first the wagons, then the elephants,
Followed by the clowns and ringmaster.
The cruelest stripe was the last day of the circus.
Circus that gave us dreams that made us some
Of what we could never be and gave more than it took.
Oh yes, we have clowns, call them re-poli-crats,
Elephants, too, cloaked with overblown egos
Eating not hay, but hope and dreams and tomorrow.
Romans with their appetite for gore had circus,
Even gypsies lent their wagons to circus,
Ringling, Barnum, Bailey, Howard all of them
Had circus, but today not me, not anyone left
Has the respite of circus, unless you count Foxes
Cables and fake news.Lots of circus there, but
Alas, no cotton candy, sawdust or calliopes,
12 thoughts on "Circus,Circus: Upon Visiting the Ringling"
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Brilliant appropriation of the end of Ringling Brothers for your political poem. Love “woe” and “Oh yes, we have clowns, call them re-poli-crats” and bringing in gypsies and Romans.
I really didn’t start out to write a political poem, it just jumped out of the keyboard at me. I wanted to praise the circus for all its gifts. Never know what the muse will insist on. Thank you.
Bruce
Bruce:
oh yes. Our present day Fox, MSNBC, etc.
are poor substitutes for The Ringling Bros.
Barnum & Bailey.
I remember my dad packing all nine of us into the station wagon in the middle of night and with the the rest of the town going down to the train station to watch ’em come in.
What a terrific memory, such a good, good
daddy to do that. Do you think he also was excited about seeing all that magic?
Bruce
love the use of re-poli-crats… great job… have a great day~
Sometimes I wish to bundle them all up, so re-poli-crats sort of did that for me.
thank you for your response.
Bruce
I made my children happy every time I took them to the circus. You capture that loss here… Your and their and mine…
Nothing in my long life has ever topped the circus for me. I miss it like a dearly
loved relative now gone to his/her reward.
The lump in my throat is still there from yesterday’s visit to all that past glory. Thank you for sharing.
Bruce
A wonderful lament for the loss of magic & dreams conjured up by your circus.
Now we are only left with the Trump circus, which only stirs up embarrassment and distress.
WOW Bruce – you really knocked this one out of the ring!
Great statement poem. Thank you.
Hi Debs,
Miss ya. Thanks so much for the ‘knocked one out. . .”. Your critique is always solid.
Bruce
Great poem! I especially like the last two lines: “Foxes
Cables and fake news. Lots of circus
there, but
Alas, no cotton candy, sawdust or calliopes.”
This is such a subtle way of describing the White House.” Awesome!