Prompt: Use the 'sestina' form of poetry

Heartbeat Drum Rhythm

The exhibition
Laid out by clowns
In the shape of a flower
Held by a dancer
Driven by drummers
To join the circus

Once in the circus
It brought out exhibitionists
Who threw their names into a drum
Then wrestled for the clown
Make up to dress for the dance
And accept the dates flower

Give me a flower
To go to the circus
Where the elephants dance
In a vanishing exhibit
They’re leaving, no clowning
Their exit timed by the drum

Throw the names in the drum
Cut them all flowers
You thought a mere clown
In an environmental circus
Could stop the exhibit
Grassland leaves in a dance

It’s a sorrowful dance
The beat comes for a dirge drum
Yet it’s an honest exhibit
Of the grace of nature like a flower
It knows its season end as does a circus
Come autumn fold the tent and take make up off the clown

What becomes of the hobo clown
No space in the train between aerialists and dancers
The coffee ground beard is not of the circus
He dances to the beat of his own drum
Choosing the calla lily as his flower
The dignity of life and death his exhibit

Exhibitionist clown
Brings flowers to the dance
Honoring the heartbeat drum rhythm of the circus