The Art of Disappearing by Umamah Farooq (17, Pakistan)

Practice living in your own body
without feeling like a foreigner
so that when the time comes
you'll be able to fold into yourself 
like origami 
or maybe you could try leaving 
your body behind and sneak     
your soul under the carpet 
where most forgotten things reside.

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Swallow your words 'til they 
crowd your voice box and lock 
themselves inside so you can 
let silence sleep beside you
and curl up in the back in 
the back of your mind for 
a day, a week, a month,
a year and then finally let 
it move in for eternity. 

Do not go the same grocery store
more than three times; let your 
identity become a stranger even 
to yourself so when someone 
calls you by first name you are 
not bound to answer because 
maybe you are just another 
cucumber in lane 4.

When someone suggests that
"We" should hang out 
tell them no, you have work,
a meeting, a party, 
when in truth living does 
not come as easy to you 
as it did before, love feels
like an anchor holding you
down; this is a sign of progress.

Break all the clocks and rip 
apart the calendars, 
Forget time exists as anything 
more than a futility for with it 
you will never be able to 
become nothing.
Get rid of your phone, 
delete the accounts.
The best way to disappear is 
to erase the proof of existence
so let your existence become
a forgotten myth, a legend or 
fairytale. Let it be anything 
but not real or worth remembering.