Life in the Circus--By Victoria Anderson Throop--Alaska, United States

Life in the Circus

My life is a circus--complete with parade,
6 children, 3 cats and 2 dogs newly strayed,
My children refuse to perform as they're told,
Unless I play ringmaster–screaming and bold.
Up on a scaffold my babe toddles by,
A fifty foot drop! And I freeze---mortified!
Using twelve jump ropes secured in twelve knots,
My four year old daughter climbs up like a shot.
Grabbing the baby she tosses him down
To five year old arms in the guise of a clown,
The clown--older brother-- his ears painted blue,
His costume my best dress--unworn and brand new.
He juggles the baby–puffs on a cigar,
Hops in with the lions behind mom-proof bars,

The big top is shaky but patched up and snug --
The price of a ticket--a song and two hugs.

Sometimes grant writer and avid reader, Victoria and her binoculars haunt a lands end highway at Valdez, Alaska. Closer to Russia than New York, she spends her time writing and absorbing the magnificence of nature. As an ESL teacher she has lived in China, Kenya, Israel and the USA. Single Mother of six grown children, she fills the empty nest with words.