Shomit
Barua
Le Penseur
Written and Directed by Shomit Barua
Animation by Nayt Keane
Cello by Topu Lyo
The Thinker
No life should last this long
petrified, feeling around in the mind.
I remember only inequities,
like how others get to thank Rodin
for their forms’ suggested levity,
for his suspense of the certain
weight, the persistence of memory.
The other statues always seem to fall
in love, unaware of themselves;
they find laughter.
I try my hand at humor—
A serious joke walks into a bar, and the bartender asks,
“What can I get for you?”
The joke replies, “There is nothing to get.”
What’s the point? I have
an ornamental mouth.
I watch a poet wander the garden
like a feather. He has a hunger
for bronze, thirst for the sculptor’s marble.
I am unable even to scream
at the mass of what I am not,
but the etch of his pen
makes my silence
not silent at all.