THE VAGUE MAGICIAN

The vague magician performs

Tricks without explaining them

Sometimes things occur, other

Times they do not

A girl levitates two inches

Briefly, then descends back down

The head on a coin suddenly

Faces the other direction, all at his command

When the girl does not levitate

He shrugs, explains her natural state

Is in levitation and that he used all his power

To keep her firmly on the board

The apple wanted to disappear

But by only his sheer force of mind

Was he able to keep it fixed

On the long table in front of the audience

The bird didn’t disappear, either, they say

Ah, that is the trick, he confirms

Not doing is the same as doing, he says

A Taoist in his youth, be believes philosophy is magic

The crowd leaves confused at best

Few know how to react when the magic

Is mistaken for something like real life

John Findura is the author of the poetry collection Submerged (Five Oaks Press, 2017). He holds an MFA from The New School as well as a degree in psychotherapy. His poetry and criticism appear in numerous journals including Verse; Fourteen Hills; Copper Nickel; Pleiades; Forklift, Ohio; Sixth Finch; Prelude; and Rain Taxi. A guest blogger for The Best American Poetry, he lives in Northern New Jersey with his wife and daughters.