The king and queen of the carnival
shaking, writhing

through the hot streets
in their two foot tall masks,

she with the puffy pink cheeks,
and curly spread of blonde hair

under the silver tiara, and he
in his droopy moustache,

gold crown and multi-colored robe
of sequins, couldn’t sustain

the illusion without a break. Unlike
their less frenzied, trailing subjects,

their gyrations were positively gymnastic.
When the red turning traffic

light interrupted their strutting,
they came up for air,

tilting their masks up and back,
revealing two squirming

black faces, breathing hard, sweating,
both men, not at all

in the spirit of the their dancing
courtly selves.

They took deep breaths
and wiped their foreheads dry.

The leader, who was neither of them,
but a short scruffy creature

with a whiskered feline mask,
a feathered musketeer hat

and floppy boots, had pity
and pretended not to notice

this breach in the fantasy. He twirled
his baton again, the signal

that it was time to move. Masks
back on and in control,

the couple pumped their scepters
and shook for all

they were worth, dignity restored,
regally intact.