The Writing on the Wall

When it blackens in soot and tar
We paint it white where the writing lived
Challenge with a few strikes of coat,
Make a semblance of a credo.

When a page needs to be turned
Or a chapter,
Some words must stop
In continuity or in construct.

Like in a ‘nestly’ arrival of the bird
The parents take turns
To teach in the first flight
The last attachment

I need not count anymore
The white steps to the next step
That which elevates in a decline
Like a writing on the Wall

We painted the Walls white
Not to hide in the bloom
That what the writing beckoned
To reveal

We painted the walls white
To imagine what heedless suffering
Makes a declaration
In the imagery of words

That, which does not last
In the living,
Live past in a writing,
And last in the lifeless wall.

Procyon

31^st December ‘10< br/> Kolkata