Vanishing Trick

all that was left of him
was his clothes his
spectacles false teeth
the stuff he had
in his pockets
at the time
(an address written
on a page torn
from a notebook
a box of matches
a mobile phone)
not to mention
all the things
he’d left unsaid

for days afterwards
we heard whispered lines
of poetry
coming from
behind the half-
-open doors
of empty rooms
the cupboard
underneath the stairs
even
            at one point
from a hole
in the ground

we tried to remember them,
to write them down,
but somehow there was
never quite enough
to make a poem
let alone cement
a posthumous reputation

.

Dominic Rivron
Picture Nick Victor

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