Roger Sippl
The Last Ringmaster
“The elephants are walking down main street!
We gotta go!”
The voice might as well have been Opey singing
“The Wells Fargo Wagon isa,
comin’ down the street…”
through his missing two front teeth.
We went. Most of us went.
Whether P.T. Barnum was a cruel man at the time,
or just by today’s standards a multi-species
slave owner, we went.
There’s a man being shot
from a canon.
Those knives are just missing that lady
and really sticking in the board as she spins.
They make a convincing thud.
Are they coming from behind the board
or is that guy really throwing them?
Look up at that man walking a wire, with no net?
Tigers. Lions. And a person right there in the cage with them.
Evil by our standards, but on circus founder’s day
in 1871, tailing on the Civil War,
it was kindness that animals were being fed
compared to what happened here among us,
and the reason we were burning each other’s homes and crops.
But we have changed a bit, so an art form must die,
as if to give way to small screens that glow at night
in bed, keeping us awake, so we have to watch more
YouTubes actually recorded right while one car hits another.
We are kinder to animals, we say, while at the same time,
as animals, we plow and fertilize their jungles,
so they won’t be here at all, anyway, but the debate is closed.
So, it falls to Jonathan Lee Iverson, the last ringmaster,
to announce the end of the circus on May 21, 2017, and
take that tightrope with him.
Roger Sippl studied creative writing at UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and Stanford Continuing Studies. He has been published in 17 literary print and online journals and anthologies. He has written his first novel, which is in revision. Sippl is probably best known for being a software industry pioneer, having founded or co-founded several companies including Informix, Vantive and Visigenic Software. Also, while a student at UC Berkeley, Sippl was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which was treated aggressively with 13 months of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, allowing him to live relapse-free to this day.
The Last Ringmaster
“The elephants are walking down main street!
We gotta go!”
The voice might as well have been Opey singing
“The Wells Fargo Wagon isa,
comin’ down the street…”
through his missing two front teeth.
We went. Most of us went.
Whether P.T. Barnum was a cruel man at the time,
or just by today’s standards a multi-species
slave owner, we went.
There’s a man being shot
from a canon.
Those knives are just missing that lady
and really sticking in the board as she spins.
They make a convincing thud.
Are they coming from behind the board
or is that guy really throwing them?
Look up at that man walking a wire, with no net?
Tigers. Lions. And a person right there in the cage with them.
Evil by our standards, but on circus founder’s day
in 1871, tailing on the Civil War,
it was kindness that animals were being fed
compared to what happened here among us,
and the reason we were burning each other’s homes and crops.
But we have changed a bit, so an art form must die,
as if to give way to small screens that glow at night
in bed, keeping us awake, so we have to watch more
YouTubes actually recorded right while one car hits another.
We are kinder to animals, we say, while at the same time,
as animals, we plow and fertilize their jungles,
so they won’t be here at all, anyway, but the debate is closed.
So, it falls to Jonathan Lee Iverson, the last ringmaster,
to announce the end of the circus on May 21, 2017, and
take that tightrope with him.
Roger Sippl studied creative writing at UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and Stanford Continuing Studies. He has been published in 17 literary print and online journals and anthologies. He has written his first novel, which is in revision. Sippl is probably best known for being a software industry pioneer, having founded or co-founded several companies including Informix, Vantive and Visigenic Software. Also, while a student at UC Berkeley, Sippl was diagnosed with Stage IIIB Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, which was treated aggressively with 13 months of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, allowing him to live relapse-free to this day.
