The Laughter of Clowns

[Dark Muse]

The Laughter of Clowns

I used to like
to pick the scabs
to watch the blood
form dark rivulets
upon my skin,
running like water
down the gutter.

Am I the only one
who hears the clowns
laughing in the drains?

Come on down....

The voices
that gave nightmares
and haunted
through my sleep,
watching their
skull-grinning
faces.

Yet there was
something
almost comforting
in that sort of
darkness,
those monsters
that flashed
before my mind.

They reminded
me of another
world that was
near at hand.

A world that
would disappear
when the laughter
of the clowns
was only a figment
of a culmination
of borrowed fears.

Not something
tangible
that I could feel
like the warmth
of blood
upon my skin
which was un-
mistakably
real!

[hillwalker]

'Gosh' is all I can come up with.

A very uncomfortable, troubling image that sounds as if it was written from the perspective of someone perhaps younger than your usual victims (!?).

I particularly liked this verse :

A world that
would disappear
when the laughter
of the clowns
was only a figment
of a culmination
of borrowed fears.

H

[_Shannon_]

I read this last night and I wasn't sure about what to say, or what I felt about it. As someone who was a cutter two decades ago--this still stirs up big feelings for me.

And though I wasn't before--I think now I am really kind of afraid of clowns.:)

But-this poem stuck with me all night and on into this morning--and I think that is an awesome thing!

[Dark Muse]

'Gosh' is all I can come up with.

A very uncomfortable, troubling image that sounds as if it was written from the perspective of someone perhaps younger than your usual victims (!?).

Thank you very much, yes this poem was written about childhood fears and my own fear of clowns who I think are truly evil.

[Dark Muse]

I read this last night and I wasn't sure about what to say, or what I felt about it. As someone who was a cutter two decades ago--this still stirs up big feelings for me.

And though I wasn't before--I think now I am really kind of afraid of clowns.:)

But-this poem stuck with me all night and on into this morning--and I think that is an awesome thing!

Thank you for your comments. I can see how this imagery might bring up such thoughts, though it was more about my fascination with my blood whenever I would get hurt playing as a kid. I was a scab-picker.

[krymsonkyng]

"We all float down here"

*shudders*

[Dark Muse]

Ha! Ha! Yes