by Mary McCarthy
It’s no fun to go to the circus
waiting for the high wire
dancer to fall
the lion tamer
to lose his head
to a fed up angry cat
the joy is in the crazy
risk and the win
always the win
the clowns tumbling
out a pantomime
of the ridiculous
how we all want
entertainment without pain
I can’t waste time estimating
just how bad it will be
how much damage
we’ll have to witness
as all these wheels
break away from their axles
and go careening
wildly into the crowd
disaster may be the only thing
we can depend on
But remember
there is no joy in retribution
you will only bury yourself in ash
feel your heart break
as consequences spread
past anything you bargained for
Remember
even the greatest crimes
the worst offenses
even those who sowed
acres of bones
burned the libraries
broke the backs of cities
scuttled the glories
of art they had no use for
never really won
from those bare salted fields
new crops arose
shedding tears and bitterness
eager to bloom and set fruit
in a world past catastrophe
always there waiting
ready to return
Mary McCarthy is a retired Registered Nurse who has always been a writer. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The Ekphrastic World edited by Lorette Luzajic, The Plague Papers edited by Robbi Nester, The Memory Palace, edited by Lorette Luzajic and Clare MacQueen, and recent issues of Gyroscope, 3rd Wednesday, Caustic Frolic, Inscribe, the Storyteller Review, and Verse Virtual. Her collection How to Become Invisible chronicles a bipolar journey and is now available from Kelsay Books.