Remnants of a Blue Circus
Richmond Hill, Canada
2017, Senior, Poetry & Spoken Word
Welcome to the freakshow
Where we paint our walls with madness
the colour of black spilling into blue
Insanity drifting towards the translucent glass
that fogs with each rainfall
Where our lion tamer wears oil gloves
as he thrusts the falling droplets like an airborn whip
longing for the embrace of a waning blue mane
Watch jesters with painted faces dancing on tin foil steps
Pebbles and plastic mingling as they trickle through
and make love in a mountain downstream
Bring your friends to the photobooth
where you can pose beside sneakers lost in the endless blue
Window shopping as you choose a background from
our varying shades of black
Don’t forget before you leave
to try our seafood buffet
where the fish is so fresh that
you can watch as we fry them in our oceans
And when you leave, don’t come to our tents again
to demand a refund for our show
Because the darkness your children tread upon
is the contributors’ price
Reflection
Reflection
A circus is typically seen as a place of joy and laughter, a world where you can escape the dreary reality of everyday life. It is also a place of nostalgia. That's why I chose it to use as an extended metaphor to represent how we see the pollution of our oceans as "fantasy." It also symbolizes the remnants of a childhood spent in happy days by the ocean and how the same ocean is now tainted black with numerous oil spills. The poem also expresses how no amount of money can restore the ocean to its original state and how destroying it brings no profit in the end.