Night: her sable dome scattered with diamonds,   Fused my dust from a light year,   Squeezed me to her breast, sowed me with carbon,   Strung my warp across time   Gave me each a horse, sunrise and graveyard,   Told me only I was her;   Bid me face the east closed me in questions   Built the sky for my dawn . . .      Cleaned my feet of mud, followed the empty   Zebra ride to the cirkus,   Past a painted cage, spoke to the paybox   Glove which wrote on my tongue-   Pushed me down a slide to the arena,   Megaphonium fanfare.   In his cloak of words strode the ringmaster   Bid me join the parade . . .      "worship!" cried the clown, "i am a t.i.   Making bandsmen go clockwork,   See the slinky seal cirkus policeman;   Bareback ladies have fish."   Strongmen by his feet, plate-spinning statesman,   Acrobatically juggling-   Bids his tamers go quiet the tumblers   Lest the mirror stop turning . . .      Elephants forgot, force-fed on stale chalk,   Ate the floors of their cages.   Strongmen lost their hair, paybox collapsed and   Lions sharpened their teeth.   Gloves raced round the ring, stallions stampeded   Pandemonium seesaw . . .   I ran for the door, ringmasters shouted,   "all the fun of the cirkus!"