Bringing On The Clowns

 

I always found them creepy

the circus clowns

I watched as a child.

They never made me laugh

or even smile.

My uncle ‘clowned around,’ they said 

and he was funny.

A boy in my class was often described

as ‘a bit of a clown’ 

and he was funny.

But the circus clowns

with the fake smiles and tears

painted on their made-up faces

strutting their stuff around the ring,

falling off ladders,

failing to juggle

or walk a tight rope,

throwing water

over each other

posing and posturing

in between antics,

they weren’t funny,

just scarily strange.

And now the clowns are free,

they’ve moved outside the Big Top

the whole world is their circus now.

‘Send in the clowns’ cried the audience

and they came on to the stage

but no one is laughing.

It’s no laughing matter.

https://www.militantthistles.com/lynn-white-poems