Guest Author - Elizabeth Bissette
7. The Snake Charmer
He'd learned it from his father who'd
learned it from his father who'd
learned it from his father and
so on.
He claimed to whoever would hear
it went back a thousand years.
Most people weren't taking but so much risk.
Not only did the snake get used to it,
to the drone of the pipe and the closeness of the basket,
but most charmers took out the poisenous aspects
of cobras and then took out their fangs for good.
But not this one, he didn't think he should.
It was a good thing he understood
how to adminster antecdotes.
One time when he smoked
too much opium he got a wild hair
and set the snake loose through those tents over there
then passed out so antecdote was never applied.
It's said about 15 people died.
It was hushed up quickly, they were just roustabouts
but the Midway Boss lived in fear of being found out.
8. Madame Ugly
She was once an average looking girl
now one glance makes straight hair curl
and stomachs and eyes turn in disdain.
No one knew her name
just called her Madame Ugly.
She'd been a happy wife when it started to fall
it being her face, chin, nose and all
seemed to swell then collapse from within.
She went to doctors again and again
but there was nothing they could do.
She got ugly and uglier too.
And the rare, weird poison that mangled her so
gave her fierce headaches and other woes.
She not only never looked good but never felt good either
and sent her own children into screaming fevers
each time they looked at her face.
She left them with their father and went away
to a place where no one cared.
Only the bravest who saw her dared
go back to look again.
She had very few friends.
In defense of others, she wasn't kind
and half the time acted half out of her mind
I guess it was the weight of her bad luck
it was just like the joke, she'd made a face and it stuck.
9. The Midway Merry Go Round
The gaffer and the gaffer's mark
eye the merry go round warily.
There has been no apparant end
to a sudden, maniacal spin
that began about an hour or so
ago.
The magician has been trying to intervene
but quite a scene
has begun to erupt through
the Midway.
It's spinning so children can't get away.
The roustabout jokes,
"Maybe Madame Ugly can stop it with her face."
The whole place
erupts in nervous laughter.
Not too long after
the Demon creatures begin to bay
and the boss of the Midway
roars through in a rage.
The lion looks restless in his cage.
While a man walks on coals
and another swallows fire.
The Midway Boss's ire
startles the lady on the trapeze
and makes the four legged lady freeze
mid fan kick
while the clown plays tricks
and the half lady cries.
As do the children
as the merry go round spins
then stops in a lurch, as if surprised.
10. The Fortune Teller
She isn't pretending
she can see the beginning
and ending of all she wishes.
There's no hiding it.
She went blind at age nine
suddenly and unexpectedly.
and lost a finger in an
unfortunate accident.
But she shuffles like lightning
it's almost frightening.
And she describes each card
she puts down - says it issn't hard
to do.
It astonishes more than a few.
She knows exactly what you mean
whether you say it or not.
She knows who came, who went
who had and who had a lot.
Sometimes she just wanders around
muttering ominous phrases,
pointing fingers at sideshow stages,
inciting numerous tears and rages,
stirring up trouble in animals cages
and sometimes she's nowhere to be found.
It's generally thought that she's unstable
and that she'd use her eyes for ill if able.
She is frequently seen giving the evil eye
to passers by and that
is pointed to as evidence of the fact.
She has pockets full of charms
for good and for harm.
She draws strange figures in the air
and sometimes sits with a frightening stare.
11. The Knife Thrower’s Wife
He'd always joked and called her cat
because, he pointed out that
she clearly had at least 9 lives.
She used to close her eyes
each time he threw
she knew
he'd miss one time
the streamlined
arc of the blade would sink
before she had time to think.
But she got used to it.
And usually wasn't hit.
But sometimes he drank
and the steely knives sank
just barely into wood over skin.
Then he'd do it again
and again
and again.
Laughing at the spin
of half reckless knives then
hurl another with abandon.
Everyone wondered if he'd planned it.
She'd been saying he wasn't right for weeks.
And then for weeks more just wouldn't speak.
At all. She'd flinch with each knife-fall.
She cringed when she heard the barkers' call.
"His eyes get dim and far away
he laughs like a small boy at play
and he winks and whispers to the knives
as if they were alive."
No one heard.
So she stopped saying a word.
12. The Knife Thrower
His vision bleared.
His thoughts got weird.
He raised his arm
intending harm.
Thhhhwwwinng!
Thump!
The knife sliced
the air
and caught in her hair.
Thhhhwwwinng!
Thump!
He lost his grip.
He slipped
past the edge of reason.
It was wife slicing season.
Thhhhwwwinng!
Thump!
He flung one,
then two,
then three,
then four,
ten more...
Thhhhwwwinng!
Thump!
so quick
each flick
of his wrist,
each twist
a flash, a gash
he never missed.
Thhhhwwwinng!
Thump!
They both fell in a slump.
13. The Lady With 3 Eyes
Small children believed when she said
she had eyes in the back of her head.
But she didn't.
Just the one there - dead
center like the statues
in India.
It didn't shut or cry.
No one knew why.
It didn't see clearly
or nearly
as far. A dim star
set in skin pale and pitted
like the moon.
People were always tempted
to poke it.
She'd tried hats
and things like that
to hide the eye
but it got too dry
under cover - sad fact.
The fortune teller
was morbidly fascinated;
and was sure she could ward
off the evil eye and other charms
intending harm.
She would have been beautiful
she was told.
14. The Fat Lady
The fat lady didn't always sing,
didn't always, but she was never
thin. Her chin
had never been a sculptured arc
though she dreamed
sometimes
that she was a swan.
Her eyes, now tiny, rasin-dark
had never been luminous.
A circucs
came once and she'd thought,
"Hey, since everyone stares anyway,
I may as well play
into it."
She'd thought
that she'd fit in.
Now she saw that
was just a sick joke she played
on herself
like everything else.
God, she had decided
at the age of six,
was sick and full of tricks.
Or maybe her parents were really
the demons she knew them deep
down in her great fat heart to be.
She sits and stares
while teaming throngs glare
and jeer and spit
she's used to it.
She licks
another dollop of ice cream.
She dreams
sometimes
that she's a swan.
15. The Sharpshooter
He pretends it was the rodeo
but some of us know
who he really is.
Billy the Kid
was scared of him.
He's much older than he looks
and he spends his off time reading books
in Greek and Latin too.
He sees right through
everything.
It's a sight to see him sling
his guns.
Everyone
stands frozen to the spot.
Breathless with each shot.
He's intense like that.
His hat
has holes from outlaws bands
and has escaped many an Apache's hand
as has he.
He broke free
some say from Alcatrez
others say he hid in Juarez
until it all died down.
What "it" was has been found
to be an unapproachable subject.
But it's clear that he loves it
when his horse hits a gallop
and his guns blaze.
You would be amazed
at what he can do.
You'd believe all the rumors true.
But, when you really get to know
the man behind the astounding show
if you ever do
you'll see it all different
but still think it's all true.
Epilogue/Prologue
The lady with the 7 veils
and the elephant man
have run off with the barker's bite.
And over to the left there,
behind that curtain,
the palm reader divines the night.
She doesn't tell the future,
no, it's the night itself she reads;
while primal popcorn bursts
and cotton candy spins
of dim and din
and games no one wins
drift up to dim the moon
and wither the trees.
The man biting heads off of rats turns
to eye small children with an ominous glare,
a carniverous stare
and there - look - over there
the bearded lady weeps
while the animal keeper sweeps
and the fat lady sings.
Brass rings
fall in rust-dulled clinks
on to the candy sticky ground.
The carosuel spinning round
with a madness and mind of it's own.
The sword swallower groans
as if he's met with accident.
A few stragglers shuffle, spent
on the dreams of jugglers and gypsy's.
