the circus claimed it had a skeleton man,
so we all took a fullmoon night and got mean
looking, but put on the sweet clothes and sweeter
faces, and went out to see the promises.
we got lost trying to break into the lie house,
and once midnight had sung, we found ourselves there,
in the skeleton man circus, where there was
a drunk barker, sloshed with devil’s wine trying
to show us a good time. we dodged whatever
he was selling and found a narrow alley
of tents and wagons, bathed in a lack of light.
a click, clink pulled us in center, and, jesus
christ, what had we entered? a tall, back door train
car, with bars, bars, behind them a skeleton
loomed greyboned and large. and it was never still.
like a tiger in a cage, it wanted to
show us who was in charge.