Two clowns step off the elevator
with crowded, static-angry
balloons tied to their wrists
just as the hospital cafeteria
shuts down. You redirect them
to the children’s floor.
But the children don’t want them either.
They have suffered enough good cheer—
as have the well-meaning clowns,
trying for just one laugh
with their large plastic combs
and bungle-stuffed catchall satchels.
After all, you’re the one with the sad face.
Somehow, despite the cool reception,
they stick around
secretly glad not to be you.
They tell you hair comes back,
pointing to the screaming red
flames just above their ears.
You may as well love a pet rat,
the way it worries in morning light
and in the afternoon,
how it nightly attempts to decipher
with practiced hands
a clump of dirt
before taking it into its mouth.
Let it circle your neck,
run its tail across your open mouth.
Laughter, isn’t it the best medicine?
Yes, keep laughing.
It’s dragged its tail
through much worse.
Dzvinia Orlowsky is the author of six poetry collections published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. Her first, A Handful of Bees, was reprinted in 2008 as a Carnegie Mellon Classic Contemporary. Dzvinia’s poetry and translations have appeared in numerous anthologies, including A Map of Hope: An International Literary Anthology; From Three Worlds: New Writing from the Ukraine; and A Hundred Years of Youth: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Ukrainian Poetry. Her translation from the Ukrainian of Alexander Dovzhenko’s novella, The Enchanted Desna, was published by House Between Water Press in 2006. She is a contributing editor of AGNI, a founding editor of Four Way Books, a founding faculty member of the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing of Pine Manor College, and the founder and director of Night Riffs: A Solstice Literary Magazine Reading and Music Series. She teaches at Providence College. (updated 4/2022)
Orlowsky’s collection A Handful of Bees was reviewed in AGNI 42 by Mary Maxwell.
Orlowsky’s collection Edge of House was reviewed in AGNI 50 by Miriam O’Neal.