7 - Disappearing Acts

(Before ground zero)

Dust settled in the dark and crimson

crannies of Houdini’s den,

a freed dove’s flight from where

a record crowd

would witness the unspeakable illusion;

this quieter disappearing act

drew tears

but fewer residents and patrons

held their breath

as among the cobwebbed clutter,

abracadabra arts and ancient cunning crafts,

hocus-pocus candles, charms and spells,

Mystery’s Palace curtain

closed the century and the mountebanks out.

(After ground zero)

Emerging from the dark and crimson

storerooms of emotion,

visitors confounded

by a sleight of hand and spirit,

eyes drawn a moment to

twin emptied spaces in the skyline,

blinking out the hard light of the day,

turn back in hope of encore reappearance;

but gradually rapt hands

sound out applause united

to accept at last the conjured trompe l’oeil

that drew Harry’s spangled cape

round Flosso’s final show,

dust to magic disappearing dust.

In 2000, one of the world’s oldest magic shops established near Macy’s in New York and once owned by Houdini, quietly closed down. The last owner of the shop, Jackie Flosso, died three years later, in October 2003.