“So the clown was walking along the edge of the ocean with God and he said, ‘God, I am so sad.’ And God says, ‘Why are you so sad, beautiful clown?’ And the beautiful clown says, ‘I am sad because I cannot seem to make people laugh.’

“Let yourself slowly down into the perfumed waters of the bathing pool of the narrative pilgrimage. Don’t ask. Just feel. Feel sexy. To feel sexy is, simply, to feel. We will now begin.”

(Jane Siberry’s “Goodbye Sweet Pumpkinhead” from “Songs Without Rhyme: Prose By Celebrated Songwriters,” 2001)

Tags: fiction, Goodbye Sweet Pumpkinhead, Jane Siberry, Writing