keyboard

words are slithering out
from the dark spaces 
between the keys;
here they come,
from between the A and the S,
the L and the semicolon ...

glistening a trail they climb laboriously
onto the screen, 
jumbling up
one letter at a time
revelling in their freedom
finding responsibility then, 
lining up, forming words,
and in a flash
they are resonating minds
dredging memories, emotions -
love hate sorrow
travelling through ether
from my space, my time
to now where you sit
reading this line

words:
making friends, enemies
fighting, gossiping,
falling in love, making more
baby words, 
still more letters
coming out of these dark keys
populating this screen
and then,
becoming old and cliched
no one wants them,
disappearing into nothingness:
crumbling into dust 
in dictionary graveyards

forgotten as soon you move away
this very word now
this very poem

amit mukerjee
September, 2005, revised 26 September 2007
kanpur