O, Unwritten One

By Bismay Rath

His memory will outlast the years,

Steady as a mountain in his age and grace.

But I know the silence and the tears,

And yearn to see the thoughts that filled their space.

I wonder of the lessons left unsaid,

The lively jokes, a counsel for the strife.

I know his life through stories told instead,

A borrowed view of an incandescent life.

I embrace the chapters he never wrote,

The turning leaves I was too young to know.

I grapple for the anchor of his quote,

To guide a ship he watched so long ago.

Wise one, lend me your light,

Pray, abandon your ethereal smile.

Come, relive the nights we dined in glee,

Purveyor of hope, you are beckoned by reality. 

Is the parting a lesson in finality?

A truth you know that we must learn to hold?

This world, inept in grieving his omniscience,

For love, not sorrow, is what he would desire,

And we rest when we manifest what he has found.

By Bismay Rath