Monday, October 18, 2010

Medicine Show



for Louis Dumur


Across the plain the mountebanks
Slip away past garden walls
Past the doors of smoky taverns
Through villages without churches

And the children lead the way
The others follow dreaming
The fruit trees give in one by one
When they beckon them from afar

They carry barbells and dumbbells
Drums and gilded hoops
The bear and the monkey wise beasts
Beg small change along the way


Apollinaire
translation by  Jack Hayes © 2010

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