Thank you to Editor Val Michael Tuck for publishing this today in Tuck Magazine.

http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/12/06/poetry-1159/

The Lioness Indulges Her Sweet Tooth And I Taste Like Victory

The time of the circus is now,

within the precarious surround of the big top,

chaos within these canvas walls blooms,

the lioness has been released and roams free,

she hungers for what will be

a most satisfying meal,

a self proclaimed sin eater, she devours what she procures in her most brutal fashion

when she can catch it.

I live alert among other performers.

I must, for these lambs less able to fend her off,

I long to exorcise her gone for their sake

and for that of my own,

but I’m not the magician,

I am just the two-faced girl and I don’t match her kills.

One face desires to flee to save myself,

one, stay and stand

and I can’t live with myself if I can’t secure their peace,

though I long to exit the pavilion.

I smell the fear laced sweat of those stalked,

and I watch her play with her food before the strike.

I mourn the absence of the ringmaster

who has so deftly wandered off,

what skill it has taken

to hide himself within the hall of mirrors,

he does not heed my calls but only melts away each time,

deeply reflected,

perhaps he is caught here as penance.

I fathom his remissness but do not forgive.

I  wake each morning grasping an admission ticket within my hand,

I long to awaken with an empty palm.

The time of the circus is now,

I stand as sentry along the carousel each day,

as I watch and guard within the fabric of this marquee.