Half An Eye

Heysham Row, Kolkata, 2012

 After a lifetime of keeping an eye on the neighbourhood,

The window prefers to shutter up now, for

The once busy lane has long gone empty

And no voices float up from it.

Having franchised its once delightful vocation

To a shiny eye glinting around the corner,

There’s all the time in the world now

To watch a formerly prim wall shed its crust, brick by brick

And slip into the character it’d long envied the window for –

A hint of a glimpse within from outside.

Even if it stands as empty on the inside!