The Last Clown

"You know what it is," Pierrot said, "I've shed so many tears that there's nothing left but that mask to hide the suffering of the world painted on my face."

Death nodded and stood still at the foot of the last clown on earth. How could it be anything other than the depressed version of all clowns? Depressed, he thought, but the most honest. One who never spoke a word but now seemed in a hurry to express what was bothering him.

"Is it true that you become a butterfly after you die?" Pierrot asked. His voice sounded like a final sigh.

Death looked doubtful. He'd never heard such nonsense.

"You have," he said finally, murmuring afterward: "I'll name a butterfly after you so that perhaps someone will remember the last clown." Pierrot nodded laboriously and closed his eyes, and a faint smile appeared on the face of the man who had never smiled in his life when Death took him in his arms. And when they both disappeared from the scene, the promised butterfly appeared.

_source

_{Prompt: see title
15-12-2025
1st picture source}