Love Poem: The Spy and the Clown
Arthur Vaso Avatar
Written by: Arthur Vaso

The Spy and the Clown

She descended from a far away land
I was from the backwoods
She was my life and death
I was her lover boy

They taught me simple things
Beware of seductive pretty strangers
How to drive a car very fast and true
How to meander as a tourist in blue

To drop a note inside empty walls
To see my reflection in windows tall
To pick up this and that from here and there
Cross a border or two, if I dare

She moved into my dreams
They knew I was compromised
I knew not a thing at all
So I played the spy and the clown

East German prisons and needles
Russian doctors and dreams
Tomorrow sometimes never comes
Lucky me to be so old and dumb

In the basement of a side street
A Paris jazz saloon
I sat alone
As it dawned capon me

I have no one, I am the clown
The spy that never was
Photographs dancing in my mind
Lovers dancing arm in arm along the Rhine

Helsinki rendezvous
Swedish diplomatic moves
Vodka for both, a drunk white rose
The Russian red room was to be my tomb

I lost my lover
Pistol whipped and left for dead
Never be the spy and the clown
My only desire to touch the sea of Oland
Hope the hell I drown

Rainy days and clowns
Those days of cat and mouse
Left me alone in the old spies house

Hanging around
Saved the world
Lost my love
Time for me to cut my throat

Spies end up playing solitaire
Clowns end up alone
Fools drown inside vodka dreams
Lena still lives in my heart, weeping