Hello Smirkus Family!
Today I have an incredibly special post for you all. It is a poem written by one of our tent crew, Brian Rodriguez Redmond. Brian is Seat Boss, meaning he is responsible for the assembly and disassembly of the bleachers that you sit on when you come to see a Smirkus show, but he is also a poet, an artist and so much more!

Brian would love to hear your wildest, most fantastic ideas for circus acts, real or impossible, in the comments section!

Enjoy,
Emma

Tent Boss Nat (left) and Seat Boss Brian (right) cleaning the Chapiteau

STEP RIGHT UP, ONE FLIGHT UP!

“Three thimbles full!”
No more no less for the oceanographer from South Neptune’s high-dive routine
High-wire debutantes from Uptown Atlantis balleting on air,
the cable so thin it’s only a gesture really
High-flying acrobat astronauts on low gravity trapeze,
somersaulting virtually perpetually
Platoons of Ottoman jugglers passing one thousand scimitars,
a giant flashing cloud under the lights and a crashing wave of razor-sharp whispers!
Special effects wizard Shmerlin, stirring up a cauldron of storm showers
for the Nebraskan Navy’s water gag
After that, cue the Mongolian trick speedboating,
including an operatic duet with Middle Earth’s most eligible bachelor
and Topeka high school’s 1998 Prom Queen,
which of course leads into the electrified Yakuza Jacuzzi,
where the reformed men endure enough voltage
to power a five-floor walkup supercomputer
that is the basis for the Rock/Paper/Scissors/Supercomputer gag.
Eighteen rings downtent, out-of-work titans now gainfully employed roustabouts,
setting up the rest of the show in a nebula of technicolor dust,
spearing in the skyscraper stakeline by hand and raising kingpoles to the stratosphere,
complete with passenger jet elevators straight to the top!
Tent crew in pressure suits over snowy mountain ranges of vinyl on rigging expeditions
Spend a day or spend a lifetime!

Watch civilizations rise and fall like ripples in history,
witness the secret birth of myths, find the keys to your city,
unravel the human heart, uncoil the soul,
solve every paradox, broaden every mystery!
Get a backstage tour of Love itself!
Fall into the feathers of quiet moments,
swooning suspension bridges of violin strings transcending star-filled gullies,
focus your wonder onto a diamond-sharp sweetness. Her smile,
the center of the universe, borrowing a beam from every sun in the diaspora
See galaxies of illuminated deeds floating in thought-bubbled memories,
countless acts of kindness ornamenting the air
Heal your wounds, wind back time, balance the Answer on the tip of your tongue!
Pack your helium suitcase and hitch a ride to Cloud Nine,
where all the tickets are golden for this macrocosmos of the spirit,
built on the heroic frailties of love and hope, the weightless peak of the leap,
one breathless question for the deepening deep:
“Will you marry me?”

–Brian Rodriguez Redmond

  8/2014