By: Sasheera Mehrani Gounden

I slide into silk
Cut a model smile from perfection
To paste over the hole on face
Smiling like a grin-painted clown
Chewing frozen clouds from brown paper bags
Smirking at moving pictures on a screen
With drink to beat my brain to pulp
Feverish faces, paper mouths, newspaper eyes
Something from a nursery rhyme
My mannequin body stiff
From pretentiousness
A carnival filled with delirium
Unmovable lights
To capture my every move
Smiling like a grin-painted clown
Putting on the best show
Even Mother Nature would be fooled