Woodburn Tulip Festival Series #1, Pastel, by John Cummings
THE STRONG MAN
The strong man, Love, with fake and real weights,
a chain around his chest at heart level, does his work,
his act on an old limber floor, stretched between ancient
wagon wheels, a star under the eternal stars of carnival
lights, his heart light enough, but enlarged by stress,
often arrhythmic as a contemporary sonnet or lover,
his act his fond farewell to flesh.
The weights will drop, and with his collapse the floor
will vanish with a crash right in front of you,
so blame that old floor, the fundament, but know,
each lift was sacred, because you touched his heart
with one more ounce, one more tear, one laugh,
just by coming to see the show, to love him enough
who never asked you to applaud.
______________
Paul Nelson