To Angela, Who Is Afraid of Clowns

A POEM

By Evelyn Bence | September 1983

Clowns are grandfathers

painted with strokes of laughter

who kiss lollipops

but never lick them.

Save your terror, child,

for snakes who talk of biting fruit

and wolves who scheme of eating girls.

Compassion

Ice in the spirit

Is but frozen tears

And bitterness

Is expectation killed.

Befuddled

A slow befuddled winter fly

With 747 abandon

Has trundled from my window sill

And…

The Hidden Years

A workman asked at a village door,

“Have you a bed, a chair,

A fallen…