Send in the clowns

Send in the clowns
so that mine is not the only serious face
painted with transient smiles
and feigning happiness to entertain the crowds.

Send in the clowns
with their tomfoolery to extinguish
the prolonged deluge of pretence.
Perhaps finally the ambiguous laughter will cease.

Send in the clowns
to ensure that inquisitive souls
can delight in hilarity again,
like when innocence was young and time had a spring in its steps.

Send in the clowns
to regale our imagination.
Maybe they can excite our dreams, suspend disbelief, and distract us
long enough for time to animate
the ossified ambitions of our hearts
and make them race again
with excitement.

Send in the clowns
to taunt or haunt us like toy soldiers.
Let them play gentle,
harmless tricks with our minds
and restore faith in fate
before all is lost.

Send in the clowns
with their secret recipes for
uncanny laughter and fright;
they deserve seats inside this tented circus.

Maybe
they might eventually succeed
in prolonging the illusion
until we realise,
that we, too,
are all just clowns.