What will happen if I die tomorrow?
My family will weep for me. But then
They would have done that if
Someone else had been born in my place.
Acquaintances will sigh
To mourn the death of so young a girl
A friend or two, perhaps, will shed tears for me.
For them no one can fill the void left by me.
But no passing stranger will my death touch.
The world will go on as it did before.
No voice will relapse into silence.
No dissenting whisper will be stilled.
No light-bearing arm will be severed.
No pillar of strength will topple down.
No outsider will share the grief
Of a family draped in white.