Carnival Games

We read tarot cards,
divine lives of happiness
we'll never know.
Pictures of family we abandoned
tacked to the walls of our tents.
By day, listen to
cicadas singing in the Texas heat.
Swallow our fears and our anger,
no room for anything but
smiles at the show.
By night, firelight casting shadows
in the hollows of our eyes.
Dust and grease
in the creases of our bodies.
Everywhere, the scent
of stale popcorn and longing,
seeping into our very bones.