Artwork © Eric N. Peterson

 

Clown

Tears run free
using my face
as an assault course;
leaked, real emotions
paint dot-to-dot
coursing patterns,
a gregarious tapestry,
one I normally hide
behind clown-long boots.

Wiping truth clean,
I try to resurface,
unable to hold myself
in harlequin waters
where wisdom crumbles
as torn sands of time.
A watery fire
holds me pregnant,
an unborn babe of misery
kicks awake,
buried deep
in a silver, splintered womb.

Gasping for air,
I reformat,
filling cracks
with forced smiles;
a ghostly white foundation
is my clown mask,
framing thickly lined, obsidian eyes,
concealing riverbeds of truth.

Startling awake
blinking in daylight,
a gregarious mantra
seals my lips,
sending invisibly inked letters
to a shuttered postbox soul,
one that flashes danger:
a clown-nose red.

 

Emma Wells is a mother and English teacher. She has poetry published with various literary journals and magazines. She writes flash fiction, short stories and novels. She is currently writing her sixth novel.

Eric N. Peterson is from Atlanta, Ga. He’s been drawing cartoons all his life. He leans towards the absurd, imaginative, and the surreal, as that’s where all the flavor is.