Big Apple Circus

“Most of us out here don’t think about
New York at all except as a zoo”

Used to be
the circus was for rich kids
every week in summer
I went by subway to the Bronx Zoo
Thursday was free day
the mandrill
scowling menace over his shoulder
shoves his crimson rump
into a nightmare now
grim tigers prowl shelved rock
tired of weeping.

The circus is a promise
silver dresses made of music
well-trained grins in a gaudy trick
the elephants’ painted feet
that will not stamp out fools
nor advance to battle
up the Battery across Maiden Lane
storming the Staten Island Ferry
clowns dive into nets that sing
and answer back
even the rifles fire flowers
but no bread
there are circuses in Pretoria
Moscow Eau Claire Alabama
soon there
may even be a circus on the moon.

Between the acts
in littered alleys
tourists look like mourners
come to change their clothes
The seductive music hints
no more funeral marches
and we cannot hear the guns
across the river.