LEARNING THE ROPES

Fake news, false clues, untruths ... who can tell what's real or unreal nowadays?

ROPE TRICK

A crowd of backpacks gathers round,
like cattle where cool water flows,
to watch the dormant rope spring up,
unaided, as though it arose
by magic to the flautist’s sound.
They drop some rupees in his cup.
A child, big-eyed, all skin and bones,
ascends the rope, now vertical:
up, up he wriggles like a thief.
No explanation, rational,
explains this. Out come mobile phones
to validate their disbelief.