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Carousel. Thirty years ago—
the caramel pony, her flowers, the flight.
Now she’s here running
again amongst horses
black and white, harnessed with light.

There’s a black bull. The pig and the goat
are marking time, flat-eyed watchers.
The Little Prince’s plane is trying
to take off and the Nautilus circles.
They know the cliff is getting closer.

I kicked the pony but night still came.
The Bock is floodlit. Down to Ville Basse
the spies are driving driving
and the carousel is racing. When’s the jump,
when do I jump, I ask?

Luxembourg, December 2014



Clarissa Aykroyd grew up in Victoria, Canada and now lives in London, England. Her work has appeared in journals and publications including And Other Poems, Ink Sweat & Tears, The Island Review, The Level Crossing, Lighthouse, The Missing Slate, The Ofi Press, and Shot Glass Journal. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is the author of a blog about poetry and poets, The Stone and the Star.
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20 Apr 2026

The dragons are beautiful even when they’re dead, their serpentine bodies stacked up and up, their metallic blue scales glinting under the sun. This close, Mina can see how blank their eyes are through those thin layers of membrane. How empty. Dragons are not violent by nature, but they hunt what hunts them.
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