I carry blades behind my bogus acts;
my buffoonery barely shadows
serpents and a smile as soft as scissors.
I am the corpse invited
to your children’s playground,
the grin of palest riders,
the scent of rotting teeth,
and the bramble-buried bones behind your dreams.
I am your choking laughter,
your falsehoods and the pestilence of putrid pride.
You might call me jester
or a clown and claim that when laughing
in my face, you win,
but when night comes crawling
you will briefly sense my claws and hear my snarl
before I slowly
very slowly
snap your neck.
Lisa hosts at dVerse with on the topic of clowns. I have been caught up with the thought of the evil clown and Coulrophobia.
August 18, 2020
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Your clown is a particularly scary one, Björn, although I’m scared of all clowns. I would be wary of that ‘smile as soft as scissors’ and love the phrase ‘bramble-buried bones behind your dreams’ – a great play on words – and the alliterative ‘pestilence of putrid pride’. The final lines are terrifying!
Oh My Gosh! You have conjured a conglomeration of frightening attributes into beastie of nightmare proportions! The whole thing works so well together and I like the lines Kim likes also as well as the clincher:
“when night comes crawling
you will briefly sense my claws and hear my snarl
before I slowly
very slowly
snap your neck.”
I love this. It’s so horrifying. ❤️ That ending was great, but I loved this line the most:
“I am the corpse invited
to your children’s playground…”
You describe just WHY so many are scared of clowns. Brilliant piece and horror-poem!
This is like the scenario for a horror film. Clowns lends themselves to the sinister and the off kilter.
“pestilence of putrid pride” GREAT use of sound here.
Okay — you have me petrified to go to bed tonight…your clown is frightening! The details are amazing and make it so!
5 star award for this one! Evil perfection, like King & Poe & Lovecraft collaborated on a poem. So many terrific lines (all mentioned already).
This piece is “R”rated–no children reading it please, or anyone faint of heart.
Love it Bjorn! I went dark as well, but not as brutally as you did.
Arghhhh! OMG! That line, “ The scent of rotting teeth” made me shudder. 😳
Yours is certainly a scary clown! I love the way you punctuate the horror with alliteration before leading to the final curtain…a reminder never to watch ‘IT’ in an isolated country house ever again!
Pure terror! ✨
Nightmarish indeed. Perfectly done, BR
What the Hell, B! Scary stuff for sure.
So scary this clown character Bjorn. Made me think of a monster at night.
He who laughs last…
eeouch, sounds gruesome … we obviously have very contrasting experiences of clowns!
Excellent! I must share this.
kaykuala
before I slowly very slowly
snap your neck.
This reminds me of being told off as a kid not to clown around too much with my younger brother during the day or he’ll have nightmares in the night. It is a reality Bjorn!
Hank
Pingback: The clown always wins — Björn Rudbergs writings (Reblog) – The Midlode Mercury·
Chilling!
This is my favorite line: “serpents and a smile as soft as scissors.” (perfect alliteration)
Excellent ending: “you will briefly sense my claws and hear my snarl” … love the claws/snarl internal rhyme.
Phobia in full flight, but is it? sinister and real.
Properly scary! I am no fan of clowns either…
Wow! Brilliantly penned!
Yes, you nailed it. Clowns are evil!
Snap my neck??!! What a nasty clown!
You went way way deep on this, Bjorn. I loved it!!!
This was a truly frightening poem. Great job! I also love the artwork choice…perfect. My favorite line: “the bramble-buried bones behind your dreams”.
Gah. I do not like this clown. But I do like this poem.
“I am your choking laughter” is particularly chilling, for me, for some reason.
ooooooooh. i wanna hide under my bed now!