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from the issue of April 20, 2006
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
A circus is an assemblage of illusions, and here Jo McDougall, a Kansas poet, shows us a couple of performers, drab and weary in their ordinary lives, away from the lights at the center of the ring.
What We Need
It is just as well we do not see,
in the shadows behind the hasty tent
of the Allen Brothers Greatest Show,
Lola the Lion Tamer and the
Great Valdini
in Nikes and jeans
sharing a tired cigarette
before she girds her wrists
with glistening amulets
and snaps the tigers into rage,
before he adjusts the glimmering
cummerbund
and makes from air
the white and trembling doves, the pair.
From "Dirt," Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh, 2001. Copyright (c) 2001 by Jo McDougall, whose most recent book is "Satisfied with Havoc," Autumn House Press, 2004. Reprinted by permission of the author and Autumn House Press. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the UNL Department of English. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
GO TO: ISSUE OF APRIL 20
ARTS HEADLINES FOR APRIL 20
Appalachia Waltz Trio to play Lied Center April 25
American Life in Poetry
April 21 runway show features student designs
Author signing April 24
Ceramics Guild pottery sale is April 28-29
Hurt book sale begins April 28
India exhibit opens at Lentz Center
ORGANIC STRUCTURE
Plains Song Review reading is April 20
Program plans return trip to Ireland
Scarlet and Cream spring show April 23
SLAP DANCE
732421S35829X
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