Love is a circus,
love is the incongruity of skirted elephants,
the heart-stopping pause on the swaying wire
in nowhere-wreathing roof-worlds,
a million miles from earth;
love takes gallant risk of plummetting fall;
love is a spangled shine,
a sequinned dance,
a bom! bom! bom!
on the bursting big-heart drum;
love is the flap-foot march of clowns,
ballooning pantaloons all pregnant with disaster;
and love is too the star-shaped eyes
that cry behind a painted mask,
and have a need for children
and a broken tune...
love is afearful juggling with air-born, circling hopes,
a balancing upon a cutting-edge of trust;
love is a breath-shaking, dazzling, rioting, shouting,
joy-strung razzamatazz
in the wild big top of the soul...
(January, 1986)
