Dancing masks & faceless crowd,
bowing to the purple pink clouds &
silvery tears of yesterday's vow;
leaping lions & flying elephants
drunken on the sweet mead
& bread rolls when —

BANG!

quiet,
dying embers
kindling, black birds cooing
a mournful tune & dark smoke grinning
with a mocking hat — all smiles gone, musing
where the fire rings & laughing clowns have disappeared into —
the carnival downtown or through the bedroom window?

No, no — it must not be
but my fevered dream in this wild, lonely summer night.