How to Disappear

First, stop looking for your reflection in other people’s eyes.

Once, you could find yourself there - a flash of light, a held breath, a hunger.

Now, you learn to live without that echo.

Trade sequins for soft wool, stilettos for quiet shoes that carry you away without notice.

Stand at the edges of rooms you once owned,

where champagne flutes once tilted toward you like flowers seeking sun.

Now, you let the bubbles rise without your name on them.

Forget the mirrors. Or if you must look,

search for the woman who still watches from behind your eyes -

not the girl who glittered in silver dresses,

but the one who has learned that beauty without mystery fades quickly.

You become mist at dawn.

Your laugh still rings, but softer now,

as if the world is not entitled to all of it anymore.

And slowly, without ceremony, you learn the strange art of becoming invisible -

how to pass through crowds like a shadow slipping between moments.

And one day you realize:

disappearing is not erasure.

It’s choosing the shadows where the light is gentler,

where you can watch the world without having to be its spectacle.