lost childhood
trained to perfection
claustrophobic
in tents with holes
looks wistfully
at the pampered child
in the first row
badgering his parents
for some more popcorn
while the artist
earns bread
for the family
left behind in a remote village
Claustrophobic
Creative Experiments and More 
Indeed a child trained for the circus can be a lonely childhood. poignant words.
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Thanks a lot!
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Very sad last stanza while watching the pampered child.
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Thanks!
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Circus is now practically extinct. Earlier there was a village from where a majority of these artists came. They could not work beyond a certain age, or a woman had to take maternity breaks, and the older child took over. They were not given options. It was like an ancestral profession they continued. And some of them were born in the circus troupes, and did not know a life outside.
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Grim reality for so many. Thank you for this moving piece.
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