Clown

Why do you set our expectations
So low?
Is your hope so distant-
A mirage in a scorching sea?
As though we would not see you
Through your mask,
Your eyes burn
Sad
Above a plastic smile.
Borrowed-
Bought
With our violence.
Your laugh-a dry well,
You have nothing to quench the fire.
You worry in your smoldering
That the light cannot find you
And you will be swallowed,
May the bile consume you,
In the same nightmare-
Your life.