Clown!

Blue, green, purple, yellow, red are the shades of his life. Red is what describes him best, Vibrant! Alive! Lively! His lips are red as red can be. His smile can bring a laugh on any glum face. His antics can put you into splits.

He takes the stage, rather is pushed to take it by the trapeze artist that dragged him on. His pants fall off as soon as he comes on stage. Hurriedly he holds on to one side of the pant and looks around at the laughing crowd. He frowns and the crowd sniggers, he smiles and the crowd bursts out into laughter. The fire eater blows fire from his mouth onto his face. He is jostled away into the pond of water with his head on fire. The audience cracks up. He gets up with a quirky smile on his face as if he is up to another mischief. A trapeze sways him off his feet high up in the air and throws him down on the net. He waggles his hands and legs in the air as he falls on the trampoline and bounces back as high in the air. The trapeze kicks him on his left butt and he gets tossed as he gets kicked on the right and falls down on the trampoline face down. His red lips smudge up to the ear. He gets off the trampoline to be chased out of the stage by a dog. The audiences love him. They laugh and clap for him. His job is done for the day. Today he made 1500 odd faces smile.

He has returned to his room, sitting in front of the mirror. He sees children go by behind him, pointing towards him laughing and throwing popcorn at him. He turns around and makes funny faces at them. They laugh and go by. He turns around removes his cap with blue hair to show his bald skull. He wipes off his red lips to reveal a frown. He washes his make up to expose the sad face. As he looks at the mirror he tries to identify with the person he is looking at. Goes closer to the mirror, touches the reflection and retracts. He is repulsed. Tears wash out the make up on his eyes and blackened droplets roll down his white painted cheeks. He stood up startled. Changed into his tattered pale clothes and walked out.

A pier burning with a body on it. He has finally done the last rights for his mother. He returns home to an empty house. His mother was the only joy in his life. When he would return home after making innumerable faces light up, his mom was the one who made him smile. He sleeps with his naked face and bare head exposed to the world that doesn’t recognize him like this. He has a job again. The same trapeze, the same fire eater, the same pool and the same dog. Audiences change but his face beneath the make up remains the same. The crowd sees his histrionics but miss his tears. They clap on his jokes but overlook the pain. They see the smudged red lips but don’t see the bleeding heart.

Today, he is quiet. The clown has lost his laughter. No joke in the world can make him laugh. Life played a joke on him and he couldn’t laugh at it. The jester!