passages

“it's magic if you believe it
a trick if you don't”

– Doc Honeygreen,       
Queen of Sheba        

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Errol Garner, Joe Benjamin,  Ellenville, N.Y., 1956

Had
(from the age of 3)
an orchestra in his fingertips.
Like having flowers
for thoughts.
Could,
on command,
and with elfin delight,
pull rabbits, doves and endless silks
from his reverie’s sleeve; could
conjure the pomp and romp
of a circus parade.
In his left hand,
the rumble and stride
of the pachyderm’s trudge
behind tamers of lions and throwers of knives
and walkers on stilts, high-wire, and rope;
and in his right,
more of the ringmaster’s array:
show girls in net hose and fabulous feathers;
highflyers; bareback riders; the band;
teetering jugglers on single-wheeled cycles;
and a jumbling, bumbling babel of clowns
tumbling and stumbling
from a bantam sedan.

– from the RINGMASTER'S ARRAY