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