There Were No Circus Tickets

There Were No Circus Tickets

when I was a child.

Poor is what my neighbors were.

I thought everyone lived this way.

Christmas 1953 we got a television

but my younger sister was so sick she

wouldn’t even get up to watch or open her presents.

Later I watched the circus from

the box in the living room

and began to dream.

My father never denied us what was free

or that he could make.

Soon, a swing set sprang into the back yard

made from discarded pipe he painted green

complete with a hanging bar from smaller pipe.

I became a traipse artist

hanging first from knees,

then ankles

and soon from just one ankle –

Oh, I was glorious swinging

one foot wrapped around the chain.

I was performing, the trees applauded

and the chickens sang.

Elephants and the exotic animals

from “Jungle Boy” on Saturday morning TV

all paraded through our yard

as I would swing-sway, then

tight-rope across the top pipe.

There was no stopping me

in my own amazing circus

as I wrapped myself in cotton shorts –

a daisy chain halo circling my hair.

Singing calliope music in my mind.

I even perfected the bicycle - first with no hands

later I could stand on the seat my arms outstretched and free

no small task on a country rock based road.

It was the best free circus anyone ever saw.