Sword Swallowers in Transition
- Sword Swallowers in Transition
What we do is get together in a roomand just sort of talk. We get into issues.Last week, we discussed how we felt aboutstring theory, but really we weren't talkingabout string theory at all. One man burstinto tears when someone mentioned the tenthdimension. He began relating this lostmemory—he was four years old, at a carnivalwith his father. A man in a lion suitpranced around, his fur mattedwith sawdust. He smelled of stale sweat.This lion-man ran up to himwaving his paws about. The boybegan to cry, but the lion kept at it—probably he couldn't think of anythingelse to do—the sobs coming ingasping waves. His dad ran to a stall,grabbed a pirate sword, and stabbedthe lion in the armpit. He fell deadat the boy's feet. A lady watchingfrom the candy apple stand clapped.We clapped, too, then elected this guyhead of the group. [End Page 2]
Christopher Citro's poetry has appeared recently or is forthcoming in Poetry East, Arts and Letters Prime, Fourteen Hills, Cincinnati Review, Cortland Review, Tar River Poetry, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. He won the 2006 Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award for Poetry, and his poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and twice featured on Verse Daily. He is currently completing an MFA in poetry at Indiana University, where he received the Darrell Burton Fellowship in Creative Writing.
