(The poetic form selected for this month is the English or Shakespearean Sonnet).
I wish I were a clown and worked with youngsters.
I’d wear a funny hat and great big shoes.
I’d wield a water-pistol like those gangsters
In the movies, and play at peek-a-boo.
Instead, I am a joke, they laugh at me
And shout offensive names that get me down.
Hey Scrooge McDuck! Hey Greedy-Guts! You see
They think I am the fool who’s not a clown.
It’s true I’ve lots of money that I’ve saved.
I live alone. My wife died years ago.
The kids around here aren’t that well behaved,
But then again, there’s no space here to grow.
I guess I’ll bite the dust one day, but hey!
This clown shall leave a park where kids can play.
I like your post 😊.
Grazie!
I liked the soliloquy of the clown who thinks he is not a clown just because a bunch of kids put him down often. I was teaching one Shakespearean Sonnet to my daughter yesterday (it’s on the syllabus of her course) and somehow I thought of your beautiful poem about winter’s frost. As if on cue, here you are with the clown’s heart!
Imagine being able to teach a Shakespearean Sonnet to a daughter! That’s wonderful! All I need now is a daughter!!
Bruce, there are things that we always have but we overlook them because we have them. Our lots may vary, and with that our pleasures and agonies.
That is so true!!
But, Bruce, you are a perfect clown
Well thank you, Derrick!
🙂
bittersweet…
Thank you!
You can be a fool in the best sense, without being a clown – I’m thinking of the fool in the Tarot deck – that innocent sense of childish wonder and adventure that the fool has.
The best of fools! And there’s the fool in “King Lear” who’s not a clown!