What We Need
By Jo McDougall
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.
Copyright Credit: From Dirt, Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh, 2001. Copyright © 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.
Source: Dirt (Autumn House Press, 2001)