vanishing acts

In the theatre a sword-shaped parcel has arrived for the magician. Magpies are hoarding razor-blades in their nests. A man sets fire to a tree that was a church. The magician is rehearsing his last grisly trick and the bird is hacking away in her high branches.

Every creature is preparing for the same act in its own way. A badger peers up at the cloud-strata and predicts dawn. The cows put out their tongues and note the wind temperature, hoping for a storm in which to raise lightning rods.

Everyone is busy.

A woman opens an avocado sandwich over her in-tray. It is full today. Each brown envelope contains a shard of glass. She spends the afternoon putting them together.

She stops to stare at the completed mirror. The breaks make up an Islamic pattern, all geometric shapes. She remembers such shapes do not occur in nature, but tests them secretively. The diamond shape. Did not a flock of birds create this once? The square. Was there not a single square plotted amongst all the stars in all the heavens?

The thought frightened her.

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