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Column 055

What We Need

Intro by Ted Kooser
04.19.2006

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.

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Disclaimer

We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 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. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.