A doll met a clown on a Tuesday of rain,
They bowed and they curtsied and swapped half a brain.
The doll said, “Be careful! My head’s full of string,”
The clown said, “Fantastic! Mine hums when I sing.”

They danced through a puddle of yesterday’s soup,
The moon took attendance; the stars formed a loop.
The doll tried to laugh, but her chin gave a crack!
And away broke some porcelain she couldn’t get back.
The clown stroked the fracture, so tender, so clean
And patched up the wound with a kiss and some cream.

“Be still,” said the doll, “you’re a storm in a cup.”
“Then drink me,” said Clown, “till your eyes bubble up.
I know what it’s like to be trapped in a box,
All hinges and straight lines and sensible locks.

You see, once, I was bound by what I should be
But now I am utterly, entirely me.
My makeup is smudged – I’m nobody’s muse
But my folly’s a freedom that I dare to choose.”

The doll stared in silence, her lashes askew,
Her eyes like two teardrops of cobalt and glue.
“You don’t have to sit on a shelf,” said dear Clown,
“Come tumble, come crumble, come fall upside-down!

You’re messy! Expressive! You can’t be contained!
So join in the dance – go on – pick up my cane!
Stillness is imposed, your perfection is fake
But you’re not the problem! It’s the way you’ve been made.

Life’s quite absurd, that’s the charm of the play;
It takes you and shapes you
as you make your way. 

You’re completely allowed to be ugly, to fail,
To scream and then cry, to be angry and wail.
In fact, that’s the way that we learn and then grow
Allow yourself to be seen – only then will you know 

All the good,
All the bad,
That waits there inside. 

What a beautiful thing to be flawed –
To be alive!
So wake up, my dear beauty.
Please mess up your paint.
Us clowns always party –
You’re fashionably late! 

Reclaim the performance –
It’s YOU in control!
No time for conformance,
You’re entirely whole.”

And with that speech done, the doll started to quake,
She sobbed ’til her porcelain grew dull and it flaked.
Then, from out that wreckage of beauty and brine,
A little clown emerged – it was always inside!

And that doll was me,
Now my body’s unfurled.
My smudged paint is proof
That I have touched the world. 

So watch me! See me!
I stumble with glee.
I’m a Clown Baby – finally free!

Editor: Shannon Hensley