“Villanelle of Career Choice” – Day 16 of National Poetry Month

The circus took me in and gave me bread.
They stashed me in the dining car
And taught me how to work and where to lay my head.

I took in every word they said
But found it so bizarre:
The circus took me in and gave me bread.

My family, if they cared, assumed me dead
While a band of strangers loved me like a star
And taught me how to work and where to lay my head.

On certain days, my fingers bled,
And I remembered, staring at the lion-tamer’s scar:
The circus took me in and gave me bread.

So tents and capes I cleaned, all red,
As another tired nobody showed me the guitar
And taught me how to work and where to lay my head.

I thought that if one night I fled,
I would not make it far.
The circus took me in and gave me bread
And taught me how to work and where to lay my head.

April 16th, 2019