The Circus

The Hobby's own collection of wildcards and characters.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now.

I never have really wrote much poetry before, but about a year ago travelling home from one of the larger national-scale card shows, I was inspired to write on the experience of what the card show circuit is like.

If you don’t go to the big card shows frequently, some of it might not stick with you. But for me, I’ve been to so many of these shows. You start to see the same familiar names and faces.

It sort of reminds me of a travelling circus.

So I wrote this poem, aimed at shining a light at this small segment of the hobby that so many people experience in different ways. It’s called the Circus.

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The Circus
By Gordy Bonker

The Circus travels from town to town.

It brings showmen, salesmen, thieves and clowns.

The gamblers and the hustlers,

Make their moves and draw crowds.

The guests join from all places,

And partake for all reasons.

Some fans and their fathers,

Their lives in all seasons.

There’s collectors, and statesmen.

Investors and tradesmen.

I think about the circus, and what others might see.

A deal on the table, or a flashback memory.

We all love the circus, its partly our nature.

To listen and look for the things yet seen.

The best acts of the circus aren’t the main attraction.

A new friend or story brings with it more satisfaction.

I walk the lanes of the circus and realize I see.

That I myself have an act and a scene.

The circus doesn’t care,

When you bought or when you sold.

The circus will remain, steady on,

Regardless of what you’re told.

The circus opens, then rolls out of town.

To find the next stop, never to settle down.

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The hobby itself is a collection.

A collection of people and places.

Of characters that all play a part in a grander

Of stories and encounters.

Some True, some not.