The Greatest Clown on Earth by Susan P. Blevins

Pennywise - Jim Nix

Each morning he drags himself out of his sleepless bed,
already wearing the face of an angry primate, and with
bulging belly waddling before him, he lurches into the bathroom,
and the start of his daily ritual.
“You’re too old for this shit,” he grumbles each day,
scowling into his bathroom mirror.
He’s finding it harder and harder to hide his growing insanity,
though he keeps trying.  His washed-out blue eyes peer
back myopically at him from his ravaged face, which looks
as though it’s dissolving and subsiding, like those damn
glaciers scientists keep talking about on TV.
He shrugs his massive shoulders and reaches for his
makeup.  He’s always thought orange was quite fetching,
and made him look tan and buff, but now he’s not so sure.
The hair routine comes next:  the careful comb-over to
hide his baldness.  “Who am I kidding?” he mutters,
“But I will make the whole world laugh one day.”  He
has not yet accepted the truth that the whole world already
laughs at him, but with scorn and derision, not good humor.
He suits up and chooses his favorite tie, very long and very
red, his power tie, a talisman he needs more and more,
and sets off to watch Fox and Friends, before heading down
into the Oval Office for another day’s performance.