Home » Poems » Richard H. Dunsany » Houdini's Back To Tell You All

Houdini's Back To Tell You All

They orbit long with brief visions of each,
four pitch-lit eyes strike the shapeless hour.
How handsomely becoming is Houdini ‘pon a coward,
and who, really, is he, to hide away the breach?

Half the world is hidden, nay,
e'en half that all I know, as well,
and longer still my eyesight blurs
as I've learned every trick and mighty glam
from eventide’s torch to Nemesis wed... 
        I’ve even learned how to resurrect Houdini
and show him what he's missing:
Stars reborn slipping through his hands,
or how Potiphar's wife can kill a man
but not him: stuffed and bound by straitjackets
        "He had watched Them disappear into caskets
        of caricature and chrome.
	Eternity-in-a-box!"

"Come, Houdini, I've bestowed to you true power
to materialize and summon; absolve the cruelest hours."

Yet his eyes unrehearsed held a loftier craving:
to escape the second dissolving call:
 
When snowflakes blankly fall
and reveal, "That is not it, at all"—    
When bloodied snow mourning cloaks, engraves Gabriel down
through welcoming Tartarus towns;
through the Nessie teasing ‘round;
through the smiles he saw but never knew,
smiles that melt even alchemy's dread:
"You cannot change my mind—you should never have penned;
You should never have entered my head—  
nor ever lived."

At the cusp of that Everest Mount,
Houdini and I face this exploding world for a final, bitter time
and together we cast The Spell: The Penultimate Getaway:

Nothing.


Our Screams          	Their Silence

Magical Clapping:

"Good show."

Post Comments

Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.