Il Pagliaccio
With his pink face, his tardy pants, his
perennially smiling lips, the pagliaccio*
runs to the stage drawing an imaginary
circle in front of kids who laugh
especially when he pulls a kerchief out
of his pocket, a green kerchief with no
end and after he pulls three meters of
endless fabric and focusing on the faces
of the children the pagliaccio gets ready
for his next act: he takes off his hat and
turning it upside down he puts his hand
in it and after three abracadabra he raises
a snow-white rabbit in the air to the yelling
and laughing kids as the pagliaccio,
as happy as ever with his performance,
disappears behind the big red curtain
not forgetting his duty to the man, he
once was, one who could reach the stars,
who could transcend the flesh and touch
the eternal, which, alas, he never did.
Manolis Aligizakis 