To Vanish - A Poem by J.A. McCormick

To vanish,
To disappear
Into thin air,
That is heaven.
To exist 
But to not be seen,
That is power.
To speak the truth
From behind the veil
Of mystery
And then to leave before
They ask your name, 
In that there is 
The hope of immortality.
But you desire to be seen
And to be known 
For your good works?
And so, you are doomed to fail,
To be forgotten,
And in the mean time
To suffer for your weakness
At their lips
When your strength 
Has worn out 
And they can no longer use you
For their ill gotten gain.
Fools!
To have a name 
Is to be forgotten.
To have a reputation
Is to one day 
Have it tarnished.
Why won't you see
That it is in letting go
Of all that's you
That you will rise
To disappear
With that host 
Who shine so bright
That one glimpse of them
Dissolves the eyes 
Within their sockets. 
For we are shadows,
Wispy glimpses 
Of forgotten hopes
Of the dark fairy folk
Who were once cast out 
For their self made idols.
And all of the dreams 
Of what we hope we are 
Is no more than
Borrowed, unsavory,
Twice chewed morsels
That fall from the tables of the fallen,
No...
Better to disappear,
And to be a no-one
And speak the truth unnamed
Than to find out too late
That they only wanted you
For the thing that you could give them.