Death after Life

It ricochets off the burning, musty rain-swelled walls....
In a plastered room
Where the smell of paper never quite dies.

These rueful water-flecked hushed words
Will never be heard, I know...
One day they will die too.
Drowned, with the deity...
I know.

Yet the secrets that years ago seemed so magical
Have dimmed....
Down to a feisty firefly on a hurried dashami twilight...
Doomed to become invisible.
Caught in the scorches of screaming rainbow lights all'round...

Doomed...
To die down ...long before its death...

Long after the dhakis had left
These heartbeats fail to sleep...

They live, awake,aware and rapid
To the world that has died---once---
With the scarring, chaste beats...

And all I can think---
I had lived once...
Right here.