Instructions for Disappearing

1. Leave Before Dawn

Take only what silence can carry—

your name scribbled on a receipt,

the sound your shoes make on cold tile.

Don't wake the cat. Don’t write a note.

2. Shed the Obvious

Abandon the jacket they always knew.

Delete the photos but not the memories.

Let your scent fade from the hallway.

Even your ghost must learn to walk without echo.

3. Change Direction Often

Trust no compass.

Choose the second train, the fourth road,

the town that isn't on your map.

Let confusion be your cloak.

4. Speak in Metaphors

When asked who you are,

say: I was once a lighthouse keeper

or a bird that forgot the sky.

The truth is slippery,

and you must become it.

5. Master the Art of Stillness

Become the chair in the corner,

the shadow behind the fern.

Breathe like fog—

there, but not enough to grasp.

6. Rewrite Your Footsteps

Walk backward through conversations.

Change the rhythm of your laugh.

Wear the name of someone forgotten,

and let the mirror learn to flinch.

7. Make Peace with the Wind

It will scatter your past

through alleys, inboxes, and old voicemail.

Let it.

You are no longer the person they seek.

8. Never Return

Even in thought.

Especially in dreams.

You have folded the map,

stepped into the blank margins.

Stay there.

Final Note:

To disappear is not to escape.

It is to dissolve—

intentionally, exquisitely—

like sugar into stormwater.

Untraceable. Almost holy.