Things that disappear
Like being six and
Walking on the Atlantic City
Boardwalk
(Pre-casinos)
In midnight moon
And clouds
Surf and sand
With Gran and some of her
Myriad cousins, sisters, friends
Walking ahead of them
What could they possibly have
To talk about
So intensely
In foreign languages
I never learned
And finding a dark store front
With huge looming animals
(Pre-animatronic)
Dressed in costumes:
Upright fox in a top hat
And cutaway
Upright bull
Horns hatless
Wearing a matador’s red cape
Upright rabbit
Sinister, unlike the Easter bunny
Unlike the fussiness of the
March Hare
Glaring through the glass window
Dressed in black tie and tux
On and on
I could swear they have moved
An eye winks, a drop of drool appears
On the snarling wolf face
Animals towering over me
Yet I am safe in front of the glass
Scared but fascinated
Longing to enter their world
In my own costume
In a flowing gown of
My secret favorite color: red
Suddenly
Unwelcome tug on my long, curly,
Dark hair
As Gran’s friend finds me
Frantically looking at the door
No name on the store
I can read but where are we?
I want to come back in the daylight
But I never do
Never find that cluttered window
Of unfriendly, forest animals
Though I search for years
And in the 80s
Birthday party for my
Sons at Chuck E. Cheese
I get a tingle
When the animatronic
Animal band
Plays on stage
But no, they are too friendly
Not baleful at all
Like my band
From long ago
A time that
Disappeared
Swallowing up
A six-year old
With chills stomping
Up and down her spine
And a glass cage of
Animals
Dressed in their best
As they lure the luckless
Into their darkened window
With a vision
Never to be forgotten
© 2015 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
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