The Vanishing Point
Feb 19 2012


So what's the point
of vanishing?

The road ahead narrowing,
the edge
receding as fast.
As you find yourself
getting smaller,
will distance swallow you up?

Each
looking back

at the other,
no matter who stays
or runs.

But there is no clean escape.
Into tantalizing horizon
blinding solar haze,
given the planet's steady rotation
distance, time
and rate.
The iron laws of physics
in which everything
relates.

How you can poke a balloon
with a finger,
and somewhere else
it gives.
How sound continues to carry
after the dominos have tipped.
Because energy cannot be destroyed,
and the simplest act
is consequential,

endlessly cascades;

as rigidly coupled

as shunting trains,
gossamer
as touch.
Over millions of miles
as gravity does,
or in ultraviolet;
invisible worlds

lighting up.

So you may not vanish.
May not shrink
into pity, loathing
or shame.
Still,
there is always hope
you won't
be noticed,
watching her walk away.