Give 'em enough rope

Secrets of the Indian Rope Trick

They throw shadows all over town,

thin as whips, endless

as an all you can eat lunch buffet

with passable biryani and bottomless

naan, taut as sitar strings pitched in tuneless

drone, puddled frayed ends on the ground

abruptly ascending heavenward

as if tethered weather balloons

by the score bobbed in the pond

at the edge of the stratosphere

or God in His infinite wisdom

took the afternoon off to go fishing,

tending all those faith-baited lines

with eyes closed

cooler at hand

humming

an old Righteous Brothers tune. 

The secrets of the Indian Rope Trick

as practiced by mystics

in the old British Raj

are revealed at last

in a downloadable app,

the only caveat

buried at the bottom

of an interminably long scroll

through the Terms and Conditions disclaimer,

a journey infinitely longer

than the plunge from the top;

the mystics having mastered

the art of shimmying hands-free

up an enchanted line

into a cloudless sky.