The Old Carnival

Webster's definition is simply:
“a traveling enterprise
         offering amusements.”
But, for those who have had
   the opportunity to
            see,
         sense,
   to thrill to the real excitement of
The Old Carnival.
Please,
      step back into the mist of the mind.
  Trace the recollections.
The closer you come
   the more
     the anticipation grips you.
The smell of hot dogs and popcorn.
The taste of cotton candy.
The feel of walking
  on the wet, well-trod grass
     with traces of sawdust.
The mesmerized crowds of wandering people,
                           eating and walking.
Young kids racing to the next ride.
The innocence of lovers holding hands,
Aged eyes of grandmas and grandpas
            watching,
         ears listening to
     the old barker,
   making his spiel:
“Hurry, hurry!  Step right up! 
    See JoJo, the dog-faced boy,
    See Wilma, the 600-pound fat lady.
    See The Snakeman:  half snake, half man.
Then off in the distance,
        another barker made his spiel on
Doctor Roy's cure-all snake oil medicine.
    75 cents a bottle.
       Cures impetigo, beriberi.
            Soothes redness and itching.
“Gentlemen,
  if you take two tablespoons with meals?
  It will arouse your desires. 
  She’ll love you more.”
With him stands an old man he'd point to,
      who was well into his 90's,
      who just got married to a 19-year old girl.
The father of 10 children,
Whose first wife met her untimely demise
    in the heat of pleasure.
The men in the crowd would surge forward.
        Only to buy
          a bottle of colored water
             with a little alcohol.
There, again, was another barker,
      plying his trade:
“Hubba, hubba, hubba! 
 Looky, looky,looky!
 Step right up! 
 See Little Cairo do her
 Dance of the Sultan's Sabre!”
          There she stood,
      bored,
   with that veil covering her face.
     doing her suggestive little dance,
       with her scantily clad body.
“Step inside!   See more of  Little Cairo!”
Ladies pulled men right past with stern glares.
          The midway was a sucker's paradise.
      This is where many a fool was taken.
         Games,
        Bets and
    Pickpockets.
That struggle just to win a stuffed animal.
You see,
Life is a lot like that carnival.
                  It's all there,
            in the name of fun.
You pay your money for the thrill and
      the excitement of being had.
In the struggle to get
         something for nothing.....
one can get had.   But,
     you never notice it ‘til much later.
So the next time you hear a spiel,
Keep you hands in your pockets.
Ya'll be careful now ya hear!!
Nothing is as it seems.

by Taz

Detroit
May 23, 2001
8:32 a.m


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