A curious circus

Back in Wonderland, the circus finally came to town. 'Twas a curious circus. Curious about many things. Curiouser and curiouser. All the players were ready. There was an ageing, bumbling, rambling Ringmaster who played the part of curious circus Chief Inquisitor. The curious circus clowns, like penguins, wobbled into the ring. The trained animals in their cages waited their turn to be cajoled or whipped into performing tricks for the audience.

The stands were full. The action was about to begin:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

and the mome raths outgrabe.

But the primary focus of the curious circus was how to kill the Jabberwocky. Who would kill the Jabberwocky? The Chief Inquisitor, gyring and gimbling like crazy, quickly turned his curiosity to that devilish dragon-bird. But, while the Chief Inquisitor gyred and gimbled, the penguins' leader; the Chief Clown; the One Who Must Be Obeyed; he who was both huge and small as only a Wonderland resident can be; took firm charge of the proceedings, saying:

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Circus gone awry

So, at the curious circus of inquisition, the Jabberwocky was summoned earliest to perform in its theatre of the absurd. But he wasn't trained. He refused to attack. The curious circus wailed in unison, "If the Jabberwocky won't attack, how do we kill him? We must force the Jabberwocky to attack somebody!"

When the Jabberwocky roared, "Not One, sah!" the clowns were all 'a flitter'. The Chief Inquisitor was flabbergasted. DeeLays Down, the sleeping dormouse, fell ill. Alice became hoarse. The March Hare, Bruceontheloose, wouldn't perform before Alice. Deemen Turned White (o/c Dee White) went missing in action. Junior, called senior schemer, couldn't find the rabbit hole. The curious circus was discombobulated. To boost ratings, The Mad Hatter was added to the cast. But The Hat affected his senses. He read the March Hare's pleas well but his own memory frequently failed. The sword slipped through his grasp. No hero materialised to wield the vorpal sword and run the Jabberwocky through.

"Where are the heroes of yesterday?

If Marcus Garvey was in town,

when all these things are going down,

I'm sure he would write a page or two

and tell the children what to do."

Forsooth a young tailor stepped up. But he, too, declined the vorpal sword. He rejected all attempts to bring him into the fold. He spoke his truth. The curious clowns tried everything to make him laugh. They tried overwhelming him with slapstick but the young tailor stuck to his design and stitched them all up. All hailed the young tailor. Long may he serve.

"Fret not thyself of things to come

the pestilence and the nuclear bomb.

The evil that men do will soon come to

an end

and the pure of heart shall rise again."

No thought for real issues

With no Jabberwocky and no hero to slay the dragon-bird, proper preparation for each performance rapidly became the stated objective. All of a sudden, fairness is to be the Chief Inquisitor's watchword. Accommodations are made for the sick, lame and lazy. The curious circus makes haste slowly.

But, to what end? Will we learn the circumstances of expiry of 70-odd when security farces rode into Death Valley? Will anybody care to ask how? Or why? Not even in 2011 Egypt does the military shoot at its own citizens. Is the circus curious about this cataclysm? Is the circus curious at all? Or just a curious circus?

But who pays the circus clowns? Is it the same source as pays the Chief Inquisitor and his companions? And, is the tune to be called by they who pay the Piper? Or, is the Piper in charge? Is the Piper really a driver taking those who pay him for a ride? On a wild Jabberwocky chase?

The lyrics quoted here, some of the finest ever written by a Jamaican, are from the pen of the great Wayne Armond. The poetry is from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, a fantasy world almost as bizarre as its more modern counterpart, Jamaica. Carroll's inspiration for Wonderland came from the English town of Sunderland, nearby where he'd been holidaying. Readers shouldn't try to make too much sense of some of the 'nonce' words in the poem. They're manufactured just for the heck of it. Like the curious circus.

Peace and love.

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