Carnival

Hurry, Hurry

Step right up
What you see before you is Real

Lean in
Have no fear
The stench of death becomes
Familiar

Vultures overhead, circling
Fear not
They come only for rotting flesh
And yours, while putrid,
Lives still

See the chalk outline
Broken, twisted ruins
Faces carved from grief

Lean in
Lick the salted popcorn tears

Pools of red run and run
Sorrow seeps into the ground
And screams

Lean in
Dip your finger in the red river
Candle apple sticky sweet
Stroke the cotton candy hair

Toothless Lions snarl and circle
Shake a long-gone mane
Wisps around a shrunken head
No sound
No roar

Elephants stand upon a
Pile of scattered bones
Using their trunks like whips
Remembering
Mourning
Marching

Tent by tent we move
Birds of prey, on land
Looking for the next
Dead thing to feed on

 

(c) Davita Joie 2016