Instructions for Fading
A quiet manual for those who no longer wish to be found
1.
Choose an hour between dog and wolf.
Where shadows forget their names.
Not quite night. Not quite day.
2.
Open the window. Let in
the silence drifting between leaves.
Breathe three times.
Forget what you were just thinking.
3.
Erase your fingerprints.
From mirrors. From skin.
From the memories people keep of you.
Scrub gently, until it no longer stings.
4.
Weigh every word you never spoke.
They’re lighter than the ones you carry.
Slip them into your pockets.
They won’t take up space.
5.
Find a place without clocks.
A cracked wooden bench.
A room that smells like rain.
Or the fold of a thought never voiced.
6.
Sit down. Close your eyes.
Picture the version of you
no one has ever seen.
Listen to them breathe.
7.
Turn blurry.
Like a photo left too long in the sun.
Like a word whispered too low.
Like a dream never told.
8.
Stay there.
Not quite alive.
Not quite gone.
Just quiet enough to be searched for.
Just far enough never to be found.
About the Creator
Alain SUPPINI
I’m Alain — a French critical care anesthesiologist who writes to keep memory alive. Between past and present, medicine and words, I search for what endures.
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