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,