saturday at the circus

you sat a few rows behind
them at the old Washington Coliseum.
Jackie and Carolyn,
john john.
the circus was in town.
barnum and bailey.
nearby stood the dark men
in glasses.
stiff and alert, looking
everywhere, but at
the elephants, the trapeze
artists, the clowns.
the big tent which wasn't a tent
was filled with cigar
smoke and beer.
the joyful stares of children
gazing across the sawdust.
this was before everything.
before dallas, before
the world changed to never
to get back to where
it was.
your life would change too,
in so many ways.
for better and worse,
different than theirs
and yet the same.