Mimes and Demons

The mimes want to hear what the demons have to say
with their big frothy mouths and their clucking tongues.
They place expectant hands beside their ears like this -
shape their lips into Ohs - and pitch high mock-brows

The mimes want to play with words without speaking.
Go ahead and say your piece. They’ll listen and jest,
Giggle with silent guffaws and take long strides away.
They’ll cast a glance over a shoulder as if to beckon.

Of course you won’t go with the wordless trumpeters,
You’ll sit quiet on a stoop and listen to the demons,
whose words strike  blows, whose thoughts  bruise
How much merrier the deflected mime, dead white.

But a mime stops and turns to build a clear glass
box whose walls he taps and locks and secures. It
shrinks, and so does he, until he is impossibly small.
He stares at you. Utterly wordless, still within earshot.