By James H Duncan
I have always had a strong affinity for any fiction or film that
is carnival related. Never the reality of the situation so much as the
possibility of what could be: that transient outsider encampment where natural oddities
and games of chance intersect with exotic animals and feats of human
entertainment, allowing us to leave the mundane behind for one night under the
strings of flashing lights and striped tents. Real-life carnivals rarely live
up to the imagined hype, but they remain a place of wonderment and awe in my
imagination.
The Insomniac Circus
by Amorak Huey takes me to that place, but only to draw back the shimmering
curtain of wonder to show us the true inhabitants of the Big Top, warts and
all. Huey admirably fleshes out that world with unique, complex, and believable
characters. Each poem in this collection (from the wonderful Hyacinth Girl Press) examines a member of that wandering tribe of entertainers and
roughnecks, and we begin, aptly, with the Ticket Taker, who is left behind and
ignored as the masses shuffle past, “hungry for something more magnificent.”
The poems alternate between first person cautionary tales and
those written in the second person POV, allowing you to become one of them
as you leap from the sullen, lonely Ringmaster to the wandering, nostalgic
Sword Swallower. Throughout these poems the circus denizens search for love,
even lie for it, get mixed up in drugs, throw punches, suffer emotional
breakdowns, and strive for redemptive comebacks.
Perhaps the most symbolic title in this
collection, the one that sums up the whole, is “The Guy Who Walks Behind the Elephants
With a Big Shovel Finds Himself in a World of Shit.” It’s a reminder that our
victories and pitfalls are tailor made to whatever it is that we do in this
life, and isn’t that the damn truth? The Globe of Death Motorcyclist learns
that “too early exactly the same as wrong,” and the Human Cannonball that “it’s
not the force of the trauma but the angle / that you need to worry about.”
And while we, the reader, may not find our own lives so
neatly compartmentalized as the characters in these poems, each poem teaches us
a lesson about life, the wonders and the rip-offs, lessons that are tangible
and real, something we can bring home from the magical circle of lights out in
the field, something that might actually help in our day-to-day. Or not. You’ll
have to take your chances and see. I suggest starting with this collection.
It’s a sure thing.
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