Hidden, Winged, and Singing

The only real way to go missing
Is to leave behind a substitute.
That’s why that common scene in movies
Of a mannequin left in a bed.
Escape! And that’s why the plot device,
Old as a wonder tale, where the prince
Or the dictator finds a proxy,
A lookalike to hold attention
While the original slips off, free.

It usually fails or goes sideways,
Which then becomes most of the story,
But the thrill of the trick is haunting,
To step aside and none the wiser,
Since apparently one never left.
No one really knows what to do then.
A new life is still a life. It burns
Through the body like any other.
But imagos lust to leave a husk.