The Clown In Tears Nor Riding The Rails Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

[for Emmett Kelly]

I had a dream: Emmett Kelly was sweeping up the light
and never finishing,
staying up all night

still losing his job

or the circus in town and then it's all in flames
and it's raining Emmett Kelly's tears
for years and years.

give us the sad clown, the children cheer
the American Pagliacci murmur no critics
world weary, bleary. you're still here, The Clown of Depths?

hobo, jester skiing the rails of silence
almost making the train
bearing the cross again some would say

resembling the clowns of Roualt or I say
that tale in the fairybook, remember?
the unaccountable tossing of the golden apples

into the weeping hereafter.
amid uncomprehending laughter
sliding down the glass hills.


mary angela douglas 20 december 2018; rev.17 january 2019