From Crown to Downhill Flight 1930
Uneasy lies ahead, head wearing clown
stems stillborn tears, while smile disguises frown
too well aware of faults that others wear,
weary of his own that must prepare
for page where stage is empty of both smile
and frown, both tragic rage, dramatic style.
Ill begotten pair, forgotten soon,
as bust boom follows, dust fate's finger doom.
Catch twenty-two, eternal double-bind
to whom dark doubts would flout, preserving mind
from limits mere mortality imposes,
wit providing witness wherewithal
to conquer temporal restraints, dread call.
Yet neither sage nor sot one whit proposes
allowing never-ending bed of roses
without death's thorn and all it interposes
between taut tightrope shared for stretch extended,
and that whose short days fray, tort stay soon ended.
Heroic couplets cover shady acts,
as line line links, entwines, enchains, both facts
and fancy in scales' balance count as naught -
synaptic leap upon sleep's breeze net caught,
counts sheep while at deep discounts keep is sold
for naught persists caught by death's stranglehold.
Tale told what stays? Play's days of coward, brave,
young, old, rich, poor, submerged beneath time's wave.
Short sneeze, brief moment seized, tree's leaf falls numb,
swept from strife's maps, life taps new shoot soon dumb.
From entrance until exit cycle turns
life's candle, merry, sad, at both ends burns.
Uneasy lies clown's head, for tumbling crown
usurped, tossed, lost again, pride's ride must drown.
From crown to downhill flight, from light till dark,
all passes, swift gift over, this too, stark.
(15 October 2009)
poem by Jonathan Robin
Added by Poetry Lover
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