Twice
Your heart
is not as hard
as you would have us think
though you sit
like one of the gods
upon a seat of judgment
and there is a wryness
to your smile
even when pleased
as if to say
that we have failed again
it is in me
to love overcoming obstacles
and so I am satisfied
by the mountain of glass
that you have thrown up
before me
because there is nothing
I like better
than achieving the impossible
and claiming my reward
in all the stories
many fail
before the chosen one comes
who can break the spell
and rescue the imprisoned sacrifice
from the magic of darkness
why should it trouble me
that you are the magician
and the prisoner in one
like Houdini
you have fettered yourself
let the puzzle be twice as difficult
to unravel
then my victory
will be twice as sweet.
Harry Houdini before he jumped off the Harvard Bridge in Boston in 1908. Library of Congress.
