WORDNEWS27

The Juggler is a piece of resilience poetry, a reflection on prevailing and persevering through conflict, suffering, and exhaustion.

The Juggler – Resilience Poetry

Two buckets in hand, 
 one with blood
 the other full of milky tears
 the juggler went to the town square
 fetch a pail of laughter
 of of passersby 
 crawling through
 any fissure in
 any wall
 they could
 make out
 from among
 dust and ashes,
 his cupped hands
 dipping and somehow
 gripping
 forming
 red-hot balls
 and snowy shuttles.
 
Like a tree
 he stood
 rooted mid-square
 his bones made of 
 ebony and oak
 only the digits of his fingers
 pliable
 now sheltering
 now ejecting
 drops of blood
 drips of salt
 from air
 to flesh
 at a speed
 that would
 have you
 spinning
 out of 
 the ashes and the dust
 
settling them down
 on the ground
 and as
 balls flit
 from right to left
 and back again
 they'd paint
 a trail of faint
 sparks
 his hands
 housing
 evicting
 holding
 a line
 and pulling
 bubbling giggles
 out of the guts
 of the gutted
 now swaggering.

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Anita Alig

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