County Fair

My wife proudly describes herself as “an instigator.” This means she drops an idea in earshot of a person or two, lets them carry it out, and disappears (especially if there are consequences involved 😆).

Sometimes, my wife instigates poems, usually by saying, “I have a poem idea….” or “You should write a poem about this.” Quite awhile ago now, she suggested I write a poem about the magical but transient nature of our county fair. So I did, and included it in my first book The Wind and the Shadows.

As the county fair that inspired this poem is going on this weekend, I thought it apropos to post the poem my wife inspired or (as she would prefer me to say) instigated.

County Fair

It’s as if 
someone sprinkled magic seed
overnight…

Summer’s last flower—
the Ferris wheel—
pops up
in the fallow fairgrounds,
followed by a whole
garden of earthly delights:

Enchanted vines
curl into roller coasters,
the carousel blooms 
in smiling colors,
the breeze brings a bouquet
of scents:
cotton candy, corn dogs, roast peanuts—
forbidden fruit 
no longer.

For almost a week
the town lies under 
a spell.

But one morning,
quick as a hypnotist 
snaps,
people wake
to find the fairgrounds
empty,
the sky powdered by clouds
like a blackboard just
erased,
and, in the place
where the Ferris wheel
was,
leaves turning
end over end
in the breeze.