Erasure is a modernist poetry technique, a playful variation of found poetry that has been around for at least a century. Typically, poets work by erasing or redacting words from a significant text to uncover a new text. An article by Rachel Stone in The New Republic (23 October 2017), available on-line, observes "The Trump Era Boom in Erasure Poetry."
The erasure only makes sense in relation to the original—to celebrate, subvert, efface, complicate, or extend its meaning. Jen Bervin, for instance, has published an entire collection of poems based on sonnets by Shakespeare called Nets. Sometimes the original text remains visible over or under the derivative text. Or, as in the case below, only the new text appears. It seemed only a matter of time until someone made an erasure of the iconic 1569 story of Dirk Willems from Martyrs Mirror. (The spacing here partly preserves the location of phrases selected from an on-line version of the story as it was pasted into a Word document.)
Dirk Willems
the papists
remained
faithful
trustworthy
and saved
The thiefcatcher the burgomaster
the papists
all pious Christians of this time, and
witness that
the hands of God
passed upon
this matter.
From Braght, Thieleman J. van. The Bloody Theater of Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians, Who Baptized Only Upon Confession of Faith, and Who Suffered and Died for the Testimony of Jesus, Their Savior, From the Time of Christ to the Year A.D. 1660. Translated from the original Dutch or Holland Language from the Edition of 1660 by Joseph F. Sohm. http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/head.htm