RACHEL LARENSEN

★ ★ ★ ★

POETRY

Image by Valentin Petkov

Magnificent Circus

On Thursday nights
our world turns
into a circus of words.
Spot light bright and loud with excitement.

Enthusiasm heats the room,
stage fright like a calliope rings.
The ringmaster hawks Words! Words!

We are ethereal high wire walkers,
balancing, teetering.
Rolly, tumbly clowns trying to fill big shoes,

Feathered women with sequined hearts;
strong feet grip pastel ponies’ backs,
as we circle the room.

We are mustachioed men
Lifting 1000 pounds of words,
muscles bulging,
bushy eyebrows furrowed.

Like florid children
we stare and clap,
fascinated by our ambitions.

At evenings end, we leave,
our costumes put away.
We exit through the proper doors,
stepping out into the snowy night.
Flakes hit our cheeks,
melting and cooling.
We file back to our unchosen lives,
trailing popcorn and glitter from our pockets.

Rachel Larensen is a culinary professional.  Rachel battles daily with Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disease, but uses poetry to continually see the magic in the world. She has been published in the Freshwater Poetry Journal, a publication of Asnuntuck Community College, the online poetry journal Please See Me, TL;DR press publication, Too Late Didn’t Run, has had an essay published on the blog herstryblog.com and looks forward to publication in The Wild Word, an online magazine. She lives in Enfield, Connecticut with a loving husband. She has two adult sons, three boisterous grandchildren and two cats.  

5 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    I love this piem Rachel

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    What a fine poem this is! And how lovely to hear you read it so beautifully!❤

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    Very nice, such colorful images, Rachel. Congrats!

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    Racheal, you are remarkably talented. Great work.!

    Reply
  5. Janet

    I am struck by your third and fourth lines Rachel! They and their rhythm resound over and over again in my head.

    “Into a circus of words.
    Spot light bright and loud with excitement “

    Reply

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