everyone knows

everyone knows
Everyone knows it’s unsettling 
yellow blooms    in a tall blue glass
chimes ringing under twisted trees
nine golden elephants    ears silver-tipped
keep time with swinging trunks
under a moon    edged in green
 
a rough-tongued gargoyle mutters low
no clowns allowed
but the nude in the doorway
smuggles them in    disguised
as peddlers    offering blue apples
 
you see their footprints in the dust 
 
no one plays the piano
the nude licks her lips
tips her flute to the sky
nine clowns    shuffle
flat feet in a slow motion dance
under midnight chandeliers
 
smoothed by long fingers    your eyelids   
grow heavy    a violet voice
punctuates the dark sky    chants for elephants
clowns    fools    and the tall black man
juggles his torches in time with the flute
 
everyone knows the best dreams slip in as clouds