How To Disappear

And what they sing so lovely and so meaningless
may urge itself upon you with the ache
of something just beyond the point of being remembered
the trace of a brave thought in the face of sadness

-- Craig Arnold

Justin Isosceles chose his patsy

And promptly faked his death.

Motives set, blood smeared,

No longer just a thousand pounds

In his mother's living room, he

Did not say goodbye to anyone,

Bribed an official in Mexico

City and hopped the border.

Looking back was not an

Option, so he never did.

Iceland, Bora Bora, Paris

Misinformation, Disinformation

Reformation

Mobsters, Sky jackers, Cuban

Revolutionaries

Glenn Miller, Heinrich Mueller

Jean Spangler, Lionel Crabb

Weldon Kees, American poet

Left his keys in the ignition

Of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Airplanes, Alcatraz,

Abductions, swimming in

Surf, Peter Winston,

Chess master, missing

In New York City after

Winning the biggest

Match of his first life.

Kristen Smart, after

Leaving a party.

On the side of the road,

At sea, Outside

Shopping malls, From Railway

Stations, On her way

To work.

Slovenian girl, Spanish

Boy, Swiss-born activist.

Hoffa, Hadwin, Holloway.

Jim Gray, database pioneer,
Off to scatter his mother's ashes
On his sailboat, Tenacious--
Vanished, Traceless.
No sign of
Gray, no Tenacious.

Last year:
A curious poet was swallowed
By the Mouth of a Japanese
Volcano. It is said
Once he realized

What was happening,
He let go and
Cheered
The whole way
Down.