THE VANISHING ACT

THE VANISHING ACT

by Fazal Rahman on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 4:20pm ·

the vanishing act:
we all perform it
one way or another
one time or another

some of those
who were with you
sometime before
have already done it

some of them
might turn up one day
for theirs is no last exit
but a shelter quest.

they may be roaming
labyrinth of some metros
subsuming themselves
in its whirlwind

they may be lingering at
some fast fading living
you left behind
hunting chimeras new

they may be chasing
ever eluding dreams
in lands alien to them
one day to return home

some of those
are buried in dark
fathomless dungeons
of an amnesic mind

some of these one day
might smile at you
an unidentified ghost
stalking from misty past

and yet one day
life shall verily play
on you, with an epitaph:
“exit, pursued by a bear!”*

*(The famous way in which Shakespeare, in an utterly inexplicable single stroke, eliminates a character no more dramatically needed in his play “The Winter's Tale”)
08/05/2012