Jocko and the Trapeze Lady

D**k Feller

He was a boy

When the circus first came to the dust of his West Texas town

And twenty years later

He'd spent twenty years as Jocko the Sad Circus Clown

He did slap-stick gags in grease paint

And rags and the people would laugh 'til they cried

But they never saw past the painted clown mask to the sad

Empty man locked inside

The trapeze lady swung easy and gracefully

High in the high trapeze swing

Her parents were flyers

The circus was her life

The carny was deep in her veins

High in the spotlights in sequins and pink tights

She flew like a bird in the wind

The saw dust's on daughter

The strong men who caught her were all that she brought to her tent

Jocko worked down with the center ring clowns

With a sad painted smile on his face

And the trapeze lady swung easy

And gracefully high in the great canvas space

Jocko looked up with a tear in his heart and

Lord he wished he could fly

For she never looked down at a baggy pants clown

Who looked up with love in his eyes

It was Tulsa the last stop the last show of the big top

A loud sell-out crowd filled the seats

They clapped for the walk-around and cheered for the clowns

The fliers brought them to their feet

Then a still half-lit match fell in tender dry grass

And soon found the dry saw dust floor

The flames leaped higher

When the people heard

Fire they swept like a wave for the door

Jocko looked up to the top of the tent

And a hundred feet from the ground

Swung the trapeze lady up on the high swing

Alone with no way to get down

He ran to the ladder that led to the platform

She cried Jocko no There's no time

But her quick word of fear fell deaf on love's ear

As slowly he started to climb

Hand over hand to the high flier's stand

Taking the rope that hung there

With one quick look down

The sad circus clown looked up and took to the air

Slow then slowly he started to swing

His eyes turned to tears in the smoke

Faster then faster and as he swung past her

Her strong flier hands found the rope

She slipped to the ground as the flames found the rigging

And licked at the rope that he held

He'd started below when the rigging let go

And down to the saw dust he fell

She ran to his side and with tears in her eyes

Oh no Jocko why she cried

He raised his sad head

I loved you he said and he closed his eyes and he died

Now the trapeze lady swings easy

And gracefully high in the great canvass space

But a place and a time are still etched

In her mind of a smile painted on a sad face

And she sometimes looks down to the center ring clowns for someone

She never has found

For she still remembers the time

When love came to her wearing the face of a clown