A Circus and a Wedding
--Galway, Ireland

(Excerpt)

To the right, snapping flags painted with Gaelic runes / snap over the bigtop. A bòdhrán thumps, a fiddle-whistle / tune throbs through billowing fabric. A pair of tired / stiltwalkers clad in velvet pantaloons lope toward the street, / their painted faces white with permanent surprise, their /
wooden legs a series of unfolding angles. Red bows flutter / from wrists, yellow scarves peek from pockets, tiny chimes / hang from hems. Two contortionists scurry beside the stilts, / get in their way by trying to stay out of it, and kick / at a pair of dogs circling the troupe.

 

Click here for complete poem.