Because You Are Expert in Such Matters


You were a failure as a close-up magician.
You could make the coins and the eggs

vanish, but could never make them reappear.
The flesh on your hands flows like quicksand.

So you pretend to be an invalid who must
be fed and dressed by others who come

to resent your neediness. One by one they
abandon you and are never seen again.


—Ron Czerwien