"Magicians Don't Exist"

The obsolescence of spoken presentations
Approaches that of the old-fashioned magic act.

There's nothing a speaker can offer to tell you
That you can't discover more quickly on your own.

(And the speaker is far more likely to be wrong.)
The famous and the infamous still go on tour,

But it's only the lure of flesh and blood nearness
To these embodiments of fame and infamy

That packs people in to hear what they have to say.
It's not as if the content can't be found elsewhere.

If both Mark Twain and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Were to barnstorm North America together,

People would refinance their houses to see them
"Live!" and hear what they had to say to each other,

And not so much in any anticipation
Of learning an unknown story or a new dream.

The anonymous speaker has nothing to say
That can't be found elsewhere, better illustrated,

No more than an illusionist makes deceptions
That can't be demonstrated somewhere on the Web.

No repercussions now when a fool like me talks
Through my hat. The rabbits have all left the building.