Page 55 - January 2021

The House Of Absentees

Moulinath Goswami

Moulinath Goswami is a renowned poet from
Asansol, West Bengal, India,

Everyone lives here, but no one lives
This house of absentia
Where everyone is present, but all are absent
A house that throbs with lifeless heartbeat

Every morning
Shadows wake up from sleep - a slumber that does not end,
sip tea in ornate cups, preparing themselves
for a myriad of mandatory emotions that have no feelings

Talking a million words that never speak
Walking a thousand streets that go nowhere

Making a hundred friends who never befriended
Loving someone whom one never loved

Been watching this house for fifty years

They drop in because they belonged there
They drop out because they weren't there
I've lived, but I haven't lived there

Decades walk through, generations pass
They all come to live but no one lives
In this house of absentia.

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litterateur 5 january 2021