Instructions on How to Disappear

Act 1 – Seduce the Crowd

Good sir! Madame!

Step right up

And behold:

The amazing

Disappearing woman.

Act 2 – Perform a Sleight of Hand

Watch her hands—

Though bound without mercy,

They dissolve

Memories from thin air—

Implode time—

And reduce men to dust.

Act 3 – Verge on the Miraculous

See her mouth!

It moves, but no words are spoken.

She is silent,

But if you hold your ear to the cadence,

You might steal

The whisper

Of a thousand broken hearts.

Act 4 – Leave them Wanting More

And those eyes!

Flickering—

As if Edison himself

Fused the first light bulbs

Inside those weary sockets

Before corroding away—

Pitted and eaten.

Epilogue – You!—poor soul,

Who gawk at her distorted existence—

I promise you will prosper,

Blissfully grateful to elude

The shadow of fear’s splendor.

You will never forget

This vanished viper—

They martyr

The disappearing woman.