The Ballad of Auguste Ciparis
In 1870, the great showman Phineas T. Barnum introduced the traveling circus known as The Greatest Show on Earth. It continued its journeys well after his death in 1891. A hallmark of his circus was the sideshow; a collection of freaks and oddities exhibited for the entertainment of the masses. Among the strongmen, wolf-boys, and bearded ladies was a simple stone cell occupied by an illiterate, scarred black man who barely spoke English. His name was Auguste Ciparis. He was billed as The Sole Survivor of the Martinique Tragedy and described in the papers of the day as "haunted" and "a living ghost".
The Ballad of Auguste Ciparis
He sits beyond the gas-lights
in his cell of plastered stone
as P.T. Barnum's barkers shout
and speak about his home.
That home which is so far away,
no longer his to see,
that day that seems so distant now,
when Hell was there set free.
In a bed within his cell he lies,
watching life pass by,
through eyes now glazed
as his mind goes back
to the day he should have died.
The sun shone bright
and the breeze blew warm
on that emerald in the blue,
that tropic island, Martinique,
in nineteen-zero-two.
A stevedore by trade was he,
just over twenty-five,
when temper caused a fight to start
which only he survived.
Auguste was sentenced, set to hang,
from a rope in St. Pierre,
on Pelée's stunning sea-side slope
within that French town fair.
In that town of thirty thousand,
in a barred room made of stone,
Auguste was jailed and settled in
to the last place he'd call home.
Auguste sat sadly on his bed,
reflecting on his life,
knowing he would soon be dead
without a child or wife.
He stared between his prison bars
across a cobbled square
toward a convent and an opera house
which had been built right there.
Then suddenly from clear blue skies
a warm snow drifted down
that covered first the road and church
and soon the total town.
![](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/211693722-288-k197144.jpg)
YOU ARE READING
Gadralneure Legacy Collection
PoetryWelcome!! The Poets Pub is thrilled to present to you the Legacy Collection of our 2019 Poet of the Year, Gadralneure! With in these pages you will find examples of his finest poet work. Please enjoy and let him now how thrilled we are to have him...