Reading 17 - Sideshow
Sideshow
(Arthur Rimbaud - Les Illuminations - 1872)
Foul mouthed punks!
Several have exploited your worlds;
Devoid of need,
In no hurry to play with their brilliant faculties,
Or their knowledge of your infidelities,
They drape themselves around the town.
How ripe they are!
Eyes dazed like the summer night,
Their raven beat
Spiked with disconcerting stares;
Features debauched; spitting, pallid, on-fire;
A careless swagger of dirt and glamour.
Some of them are young!
Armed with frightening voices and several dangerous talents,
They set out soliciting on the city streets,
Festooned in all their revolting finery.
Way beyond your frauds and other inauthentic buffooneries,
In improvised costumes of nightmarish taste,
They play out their sweet romances,
Singing of deadbeats and demigods outcast,
Mingling popular tunes with bestial poses and grotesque embraces.
Master jugglers; they harangue people and places,
And unleash their manic stagecraft,
Hellbent; tears and trickles of blood stream down,
Their noise, their nausea; lasts just a moment or months entire.
