Discontinued

There is a due process to someone’s leaving.

There is a farewell,

An expectation of return,

Or a recognition of the finality of going.

Even in a farce, you see,

Or any kind of act, for that matter,

Exits for characters are marked as clearly

As their entry.

But when they are lifted out of scenes by aerialists,

Transported through false ceilings

And kept behind cage doors no one knows about,

The act, the actors and the audience are frozen

In perpetuity.

First published in The Kashmir Walla, June 2016.