Insatiable Clown Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Insatiable clown
With red nose
You steal with stealthy step
Along the hedges in the
Night
Under the stars under the white
All grey all shade all dark
In Hastings Gardens.

And
I heard your lament
A little after you looked
Intent with lifted head
Toward your Moon-Goddess
Had tears in your eyes
Then said
Heard I:
‘Woe is this world, all woe, all ashes
Black, shadows, tears
I will to laugh but cannot
Laugh,
What clown am I?
Am I the rumored fool?
Am I the only wise?
The others of the earthly band
Upholders materially
All do and laugh and stand
And sound
More than empty vessels in a desert of sand
When iron chills of night fall on that land:
And distant-hoarse the jackals and bats cry
And shadows roam, restless, and pry.
I must laugh I know, but the world now
Is not of clowns, alas! would that it be
That all had clown in blood and laughter be! '

So plained the clown
Yet
Still the Moon Goddess
Spoke not
Only
Shed a tear.

Look! The night flees
As the clouds speed away
So Dawn approaches
Fast with the new day:
And the clown hied away
With stealthier step
And pace
Like as to witch with broom
Over the seas
Over the waters wild
At night
That night
For wise he was
Then laughed
A great laugh
And went to other lands.