Clowning Around

         No one takes me seriously, thought the clown, looking down at the knees of his baggy patched pants and the toes of his large shoes. They just don't understand. He'd tried convincing people he was capable of being serious but it never worked. He'd take off his clown nose and brush back his hair. He'd tried dressing up nicely but nothing ever worked. No one ever seemed to see beneath his exterior. He'd even tried getting his hair cut and dyed a more sensible color, but he could do nothing about his awkwardly large hands and feet. Nor could he change the fact that the very shape of his face, along with its features, seemed to suggest he was perpetually clowning around.

         More often than not, the clown found it easier to play along and act how everyone else expected him to. He tried to be serious, but no one saw it. "If you prick me, do I not bleed?" he would say. Coming from a clown, this quote is taken as a joke. He cannot convince them otherwise. He could be the most elegant and articulate orator the world has ever seen, but to that world, he would never be taken seriously.

         What's the sound of one clown laughing? HaHaHaHa Sigh, the clown thinks to himself, but that's just not funny. Clowning around is the only way he knows to get people to listen to his words. Sure, sometimes it's fun to make people laugh, he likes when people are happy, but he never wanted to be a perpetual joke though. The real world remains out of his grasp. "Silly Clown," they say, "make us some balloon animals." He tries to say, "But I'm not a clown, it's just something I do, not who I am," but his words fall on deaf ears. He lacks the energy to explain, so he continues to tell his jokes anyway. All they see is the goofy grin; they cannot see the sad sunken eyes. He goes to sit on a bench for a moment of peace, but the children gather 'round. "Yay! A clown," they say. "Clown, can you do a shadow puppet show for us?" The clown tries showing them he's not really a clown, just a regular guy who is capable of serious thought, but then he realizes, How can anyone ever take me seriously, when even in my own mind, I find I think of myself as a clown?

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