zoetrope
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Zoetrope
Ting Huan
fed you hot air
and made you a spectacle
high up
where paintings rotate,
beautiful translucent
And today, cylinder
they mount you on a spindle
like Sleeping Beauty
and finger you
from static to rapid,
arguing about your first name.
The Greeks opt for the wheel of life
ζωή - zoe, and τρόπος - tropos,
but others hurl, soul taker
and Daedalum,
the Devil's Wheel,
forgetting that what matters most is magic.
Your first whirl thrills the dancer
clumsy in the first Richter,
adagio until you gain speed;
fouetté en tournant
fouetté en tournant
fouetté en tournant.
Equus is the same in the manege
ready diagonals,
awaiting the spin like a whip;
two inch thoroughbred
poised to walk, trot, gallop,
trot-gallop.
The others, await your interest:
Tomfoolery ball balancing
Professor Crumble's hat passing monkeys
pirouettes stored in an ornament
tickets for the Baboon Theatre
and the acrobat forever falling.
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