Clean shops, Stag employees in Germany , A Clown poem and a photo of 2 clowns

Photo; Liam Downes

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Our Shops were never so clean

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Stag employees trip to Germany with Dan Moloney T.D.

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Tralee clowns, Ronaldo and Giogo Fanzini meet Michael Lynch during Listowel Writers' Week a few years ago

The Clown

by John Fitzgerald

John has another circus themed poem for us today.

The Clown

Who is this one I call the clown, 
Comes in and out of every town? 
You take a child of tender years, 
Fill with laughter, touch with tears. 
You live inside a sawdust ring,
A peg on which the circus clings; 
A whited face, a button nose, 
What is beneath, who is to know. 
A comic look of tragedy?
A tragic look of comedy?
Wise enough to know the fool, 
Kind enough to not be cruel;
A mask that ever hides your face, 
A shining light, a saving grace?
Who is this one I call the clown,
Comes in and out of every town?
Who is this one, what is your role,
When touching hearts, you touch the soul?

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A Spiral Staircase

That which we call a spiral staircase is not actually a spiral at all. It is helical. A spitral is two dimensional, a helix is three dimensional.

At a rough estimate, 10% of the population are left handed solo called spiral staircases were usually designed to favour right handed so that a deciding swordsman could fight off right handed attackers. Listowel castle has such a staircase.

There is a chateau in the Loire valley in France which has a double helix staircase so that people coming down dont bump into people going up. Sounds like good sense to me.

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A Covid Listowel Limerick

During Lockdown diversions we seek,

Of Zoom and of Facetime they speak.

On Liveline, a prude, while Trump talks of Jeyes Fluid.

And worse, no Listowel Writers' Week 

Mattie Lennon.