Starlight Circus, Warrawong, 10 October 2018

The chicken wire holds the savannah down,
rain drips on their musty manes.

Their T noses suck traffic fumes,
claws are welfare trimmed; no zebras allowed.

She climbs into the box
and then out again…

Three shows on Sunday – the required roaring,
The whip, the crowd like herds in a dusty carpark.

She climbs out of the box
and then in again…

There’s no place in our world for your kind of wild.
But life’s long and there’s gristle, even if the heart’s gone –

Image: A lion tamer at Bertram Mills Touring Circus, Ascot, c. 1936, Edward G Malindine, Collection of National Media Museum, Flickr . Yes, Australia still has not banned circus animal cruelty. Readers can find out more here.

And continuing December’s playlist – here’s Terry Riley’s In C – by Africa Express (including a visual tour of Bamako, Mali’s capital city)