The Circus

I'm at work with my mother at the moment. Submitting this via cell phone. I'm hearing circus music in the background of my thoughts, and somewhere there's a great masqued elephant whose rider is dressed as the ring master. Clowns hover at the edges of the crowd, too real and barely there all at once. The crowd is mesmerized, laughing a clapping but each aware that under their cheerful guise there lies a certain dormant fear, waiting with baited breath to turn into tumultuous panic. The whole thing is thrilling as can be...