The Jumping Horses Of The Carnival (Edited, My Eyes Are Failing Me) Poem by RIC BASTASA

Do you still remember
the jumping horses of the carnival
when we were yet small?

Do you remember sometime
in July of 1968?

The horses were made of tin
in different colors,

practically all other colors
which were impossible for real horses
that we knew of
black, gray, white, brown, spotted

there were pink, yellow green
and rainbow horses

(i hope you remember
that you preferred the black ones)

Those horses did not jump on their own
You bet

A hand held their feet

and when your guess won,
you got
a cheap teddy bear

Those horses move with the music
of the old record player
with a harsh and confused voice
like a desert storm

and there was a Big Man
holding the microphone

Dictating who shall move next
till your number won the prize
of your persistence

i called you stupid &

That was the beginning of my criticism
Turned treatise of Reason

Now, i am going back there to obtain more data
Perhaps, i shall then be
Enlightened in black and white, perhaps,
i am not sure anymore