Circus Animals' Desertion


Carrollton, GA A breeding bull unsettled by the auctioneer's hoarse voice bursts into the stands eyes calm intent and red among the crowd scattering away. Madrid, Spain The fallen paseillo can't find a way to distract the bull; it's horns slow and red in the white belly of his fallen horse. The long breathless quiet as the horse tries to stand again and again reaches the bleachers far enough away the crowd calmly watches like TV. The bull and the toppled horse are a fiction on the terra-cotta. Greenville, NC Beneath the white and red tentpoles standing like ribs, a show horse spooks away from the trainer's hands eyes bulging wide like eggs hooves scattering hay past two bull elephants waiting patiently at the door. Queens, NY The air inside thick and still in the red heat until the sudden lunge of elephants toward the crowd standing a slow wave outwards as the ringmaster's voice goes hoarse. The slow deliberate sway of white and red and grey and softly crying trumpets.