The Circus Siren

It was the perfect chance to run away with the circus.

The performers and their support crew were inside nearby Kemper Arena. It would have been a simple matter to become a stowaway in a Ringling Brothers train last weekend.

What would I be escaping from? The bleak view of Kansas City from inside the passenger train made a compelling case for hightailing it out of this town. Stagnant water from recent rain pooled with chemicals in noxious puddles. Beyond the railroad tracks lay abandoned brick buildings, interspersed with a handful of windowless steel warehouses. It’s a unpromising landscape.

Alas, I knew that beyond the dismal abyss of the West Bottoms, a green, comfortable world awaited my return. The elephant poop shoveler's job is safe.