1705

Did you see the circus unfold yesterday?
Were you watching when the red clowns fell from their trapeze,
While the green clowns balanced on their one wheeled cycles with ease?
Did you see the smiles they painted on their faces
With the war paint left from the long forgotten war?

Did you cry when the red clown made the green clown trip,
And laughed when the green clown boxed the red clown’s ears?
And sighed when they both fell off the ball they tried balancing upon?
Were you relieved at getting back your money’s worth,
As you sat clapping at the acts they put up?

And did you see them when they rubbed their painted smiles and tears off,
When all the shades of red and green became black?
As black as the soot that gathered on the portrait of our slain hero-
After days of candlelight vigils.
And as black as the ink that stained a million petitions.

Did you see the clowns when their black hands
Got stained with the blood of the people all around?
And did you see their black feet-
When they broke into an animated dance,
After hearing the sound of the bomb?

Did you see how pleased all the clowns were-
Now neither red nor green,
When the smell of blood touched their nostrils,
And tickled all their senses within?,
While we ran about chasing our flimsy dreams of change.

Did you leave after the show was done,
Laughing all the way home?
Or did you wait to see the clowns share the last laugh?
Did you watch carefully as the tables turned on us,
And we became objects of their inexpensive joy?

We are meant to dance to their songs and provide for their whims,
And serve with our heads when they need to try their bullets.
We are meant to clap when they play with our brains,
And collect our respective pieces of cheap, ephemeral fun.
Welcome to the circus of the red and green clowns,
Where this is how things get done.