Carnival

We swim through the fair,
wading through the smell
of funnel cake and other fried treats
threatening to fill our lungs,

deliciously drowning us
amid carnival barkers and juggling dogs,
lights as bright as sunfish
and other sea creatures of a habit.

Children dreaming of cotton candy
hop from the Ferris wheel,
breathing sugar with a taste
of excitement from a summer night

not in school, as we wade upstream,
pushing against the tide
washing through
the school of revelers, baptized at last.

This poem and many others are available in my collection of poems, Paint the Living, Plant the Dead, available now on Amazon.

“Carnival” originally appeared in the Galway Review.