About the Author Thomas D. Jones is the author of Genealogy X, his first book of poetry, published by The Poets Press out of Providence, RI. His poetry has also been published in numerous magazines throughout the country. Originally from northern New Jersey, he has a BA in English from Seton Hall University and an MA in Publishing Studies from New York University. After twelve years in the publishing field, he decided to change his career and become an adult educator, teaching composition and ESL at colleges in the New York/New Jersey area. Since moving to Rhode Island in 2001, he has done freelance publishing and now teaches ESL and computers at adult education centers. He is also the publisher and Poetry Editor of Wings Online Magazine, www.geocities.com/wingsmag2002/ in existence (but not on-line) since 1991. This is his first poetry in Nuvein.

Hyenas jeer at the clown

who smiles with a frown

because they do not understand

he is king of juggling,

his tightrope his own making,

and tigers from which he runs

are pages that he gives a name.



He is the poetaster of the sea,

ventriloquist of conch,

gap-jawed, rag-tagged travesty,

prestidigitator par excellence,

allegorical alligator of renown,

the reptilian service man of nonce,

the only one who apes in town,

who juggles space up and down.



As politician of planets and their motions,

he plucks the strings that makes things go,

gives a pattern to the constellations

and brings to mortals weal or woe,

or so the superstitious clods believe

who look to gods for answers to their pain.



Hyenas jeer at the clown

who smiles with a frown

as he bounces up and down

upon his broken crown.



This Parmenides of comic cosmic dust

alchemizes metal into rust

Like King Midas with a golden touch.

As much a weapon as a toy,

his illusion conquers with a blow.



Watch him as he makes his rounds

past animals caged in zoos,

each one resembling human form

trapped in a prison that it chooses.



Hyenas jeer at the clown

who smiles with a frown

but with ignorance they forget

he leads them on a string

in the center of the ring.



See him ride the ghostly garbage truck

and dump the trash from mental cans

that inhibit and keep a body buried,

from growing like him into a clown.

Yet in his surreptitiousness and stealth,

from here to there and back again,

he reveals all in nothing but himself:

a Pandora who jumps out of the box.