Our family was a band of circus performers, everyone jumping through hoops, craving the spotlight; the women in spangled costumes dangling high above it all, holding the rope between their teeth, threatening to break; the men, their heads in lions’ mouths held open by other men, no one roaring that something must surely snap; only the children moving forward, foolishly balancing on the backs of galloping horses, flying through the air and assuming to be caught, steering clown cars, tooting their own horns; going, yes, but in a circle, aware their audience had departed only by the absence of applause.