The Last Word
In the Land of the Plenty
Philosophies and essays,
debates and discussion,
free and illimitable thoughts
mutely rest within covers
bound in leather.
They sit beside
thought provoking theses
and classical myths.
Drama through the ages
share space with
medical manuscripts.
Theories and treatises,
Theorems and corollaries,
self-help, facts and fiction
line infinitely
on daily-dusted library shelves.
On coffee tables rest glossy magazines
of architecture and culture popular.
Poems and prose,
religion and science
music and art.
Words
from neanderthal grunts,
cave scribes,
oral traditions,
and ancient scrolls.
Words from
palm-leaf manuscripts,
ancient calligraphies,
many lost others preserved.
Woodblocks to metal,
metal to silicon...
From Gutenberg press to Gutenberg font,
we have traveled afar.
Digital data churn, ensuring continuity.
Yes, we have words.
Words in foreign tongues
and in translated works
request a conversation.
Words on cultures or legends
exist within covers,
they invite you to open,
mutely avowing,
tacitly agreeing,
in their consent to share.
Words, words, and words
spill out of a never ending
cornucopia.
They invite, seek, find, and include.
Magical with or without magic,
words promise, they transport,
they wish to transform
in their infinite abundance.
On the face
of such
bounty,
there’s
no exclusion of
paucity.
And yet in spite of everything,
this word
is not deficient in defining itself
in
poverty,
shortage,
dearth,
shortfall...
It’s found in infinite dictionaries
synonymously synching in
teeming thesauri
Scarcity doesn’t even lack habitat.
This word
resides
in
closed
minds
that
simply
refuse
to
read.
Image Courtesy
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Nandinagari_Manuscript.jpg