In the Box of Things Bought at Auction

by | Oct 8, 2013 | Poetry

An old, hand-colored, circus postcard shows the fat lady sitting on a chair outside a stripped tent that is probably the big top, and the strong-man next to her, standing on a box covered with stars and moons.  You can tell he is short.  Shorter than the fat woman.  He may be the circus midget, too.  Or a lion tamer.  That is a rolled up whip leaning against the box.  The colorist painted the fat lady’s frilly dress pink.  She would have preferred green.  The note on the back of the card says “Greetings from Florida.  We went to the circus this week.  Lacey loved the elephants.  Wish you were here.  Love, Your Son David.”  A smudge of ink is leaking though the card.  Love, backwards.

 

Photo By: Bill Keaggy

About The Author

Lisa Cihlar

Lisa J. Cihlar’s poems have been published in The South Dakota Review, Green Mountains Review, In Posse Review, Blackbird, and The Prose-Poem Project. One of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook, “The Insomniac’s House,” is available from Dancing Girl Press and a second chapbook, “This is How She Fails,” is available from Crisis Chronicles Press. She lives in rural southern Wisconsin.