Forgotten Twice

By Aditya Nandkumar Garde

Mortality ends us,

but forgetfulness kills us twice.

The first death,

when breath leaves the body,

and silence takes its seat,

The second,

when names fade,

from even the lips that once trembled to speak them.

Graves are kind;

they remember,

It is the living,

who forget.

We build statues,

but not memories,

We light candles,

but not warmth,

And what was once a soul,

becomes just a date,

a name in stone,

without the voice that carried it.

The dead sleep peacefully;

it’s we, the living,

who keep dying in fragments,

each time we choose convenience,

over remembrance.

Time is not the thief,

it’s our attention that robs eternity,

For even gods vanish,

when prayers stop calling their names.

Mortality ends us,

But forgetfulness…

that quiet, cruel eraser,

it writes over love,

and calls it moving on.

By Aditya Nandkumar Garde