When I am too happy,
I think of my own death.
And what will they do when
They see me as a body,
Making a total corpse of myself.

Will my fluent shape be lost
Under the white sheet,
And their shrill cries?
In my room, will a lamp
Be softly burning by my bed-side?

My books, my name, my touch,
May catch an unfancy gaze
To become one with an obsolete crevice -
But my pillow will remain
Where it remains, to be
With my first love, and pillow talk.

To Ved
Mumbai
2004

Geeta Chhabra

Recited at Paris-Sorbonne University (Abu Dhabi) for the event - Speak Abu Dhabi The Masters - on 14th November 2012.