Unnamed

A way to being called

A convention to hide/ guise/ conceal

who you are

and aren't

Standing past inconveniences many

Even the falling of the being

not taking it away

Headstones and eulogies reminding

Guess as you may

the traits that guise behind it

A name is just a name,

or is it?

A track to the roots,

a claim to the skies,

a connection undenied

dreams branching out of

the soil of history

The very way you get to wield

the privilege of a tongue twisted

A name to die for

A name to live

A name to uphold

A name to conceal

Not so much

the colour of the skin,

the hues of hope

or the shape of eyes

A name travels through

walls of prejudice,

faster than the might of light

Alexander becomes the great

Buddha unbecomes Gautama at once

Henry the third gets to be pious

Louise the ninth,  a saint

And there is

Bharat

waiting for her turn

to unbecome the river

long after the water has flown

under the bridges of history