Polly of the Circus

Summary

A trapeze sylph plummets from her cobalt empyrean into the hushed austerity of a parsonage garden, her sequined body a comet of scandal across the monochrome New-England sky; the fall fractures her ankle and the town’s propriety in one brittle crack. While convalescing beneath the austerity of scripture-lined walls, Polly Fisher—smelling of sawdust, gunpowder, and rosin—teaches the stiff-collared Reverend John Hartley that grace can arrive wearing spangled tights. Their clandestine covenant of marriage, inked in moonlight and circus brass, detonates the congregation’s pieties; the pulpit is vacated, the ring is abandoned, and the lovers find themselves exiled to opposite frontiers of their respective heavens. Polly must choose: watch the man she loves suffocate in the dust of a vestry that no longer wants him, or vault back into the aerial firmament alone, carrying only the memory of a kiss that tasted of cotton-candy and communion wine.

Synopsis

When circus aerialist Polly Fisher is injured, she is taken to the nearby home of minister John Hartley. The two fall in love and marry secretly. But when the news leaks out, the minister loses his pastorate over disdain by the parishioners for Polly's background as a performer. Polly must decide whether to stay with the man she loves or leave him for the good of his calling.