Ronnog and Steve Seaberg performing Ronnog's poem at the Phoenix Coffee House in Cambridge MA in 1998. See seaberg-acrobaticpoetry.net. Ronnog and Steve were also featured In Wim Wenders' Soul of a Man.

THEATRE OF THE SMILING FACES

Unfocused love rising
above swamps and aisles
of unsold holiday cards
sometimes refering to sunsets
sagging balloons bouncing
at night
their strings on the floor.
Who needs more
love?
Love in a store.

Flat ironed electronically
through lenses we see
hanging by our faklse teeth
our false smiles
mirrored globally
The Theatre of the Smiling
Faces.

The Theatre of the Smiling Faces
holds comedy night for the
major races.
Exchanging uncontraversial
views
of nonconsequential
don'ts and dos
ehe smart director
stays out of sight
the play is called
Eveytghig is All Right.

The garbage floats
The babies cry
the homeless lie
in their overcoats.
The wealthy buy boats
The poets sigh.

Ay, ay, ay, ay!
The planes are in the sky.
Mankind develops
from cells to scallops
to sperm and eggs
meeting in envekops
until it stops
but all is tops.

On the stage of the
Smiling Faces
no rage but cold embraces.
Observance of a holiday
will clue
the actors to what to do,
what to say,
what chances to take
what dance steps
to make.

I conspire
to set it all on fire
to turn the gentle crocodiles
into the Theatre of the
Burning Smiles.

Ronnog Seaberg
Feb. 1998