‘Flea Bitten Unicorn’ by Dominic Loise

There was a cheap rate UHF airtime

commercial during my youth repeated

in between after school cartoons

that heralded the return of a lost link to mythic days

which with only a ticket to the coming circus

would reveal to me a unicorn

Cathode ray tubes around town valed

this creature only the center placed ringmaster

at the circus could reveal the beast brightly billed

to fill the whole big top but this unicorn failed

to eclipse the elephants and acrobats with any

awe inducing aura

A sequence and greasepaint parade

dressed up a one horned goat

which was used to barkered me

into pestering my parents to the circus

taking their money like a walking rigged

carnival game found outside the big tent

another trick for the rubes- crooked and off center

The goat’s one horn balloon popped away

any magic my mind built up after

watching that sixty second commercial

realizing I was just another one of

P. T. Barnum’s suckers “born every minute”

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Dominic Loise is open about and advocates for mental health awareness as seen with his essay writing for F(r)iction. Dominic’s poetry has appeared in multiple journals and he was a finalist in Short Editions' "America: Color it in" contest.