"If I kill myself today" by Devashish Makhija.

If I kill myself today

Tomorrow’s milk will curdle untended at the door

Some clothes in the washing machine will stay unwashed forever

A hundred ants will gather in quiet celebration around some spilt tea in the kitchen

A desperate doorbell will fall from favour on deaf ears

If I kill myself today

Dust will gather where my broom won’t be reaching anymore

Ignored, a solitary banana will rot, surrendering itself to flies

A stubborn pigeon will wonder why she’s not being chased out the window, and gleefully invite some others in

Helplessly, three bottles of pills will age past their expiry date, their contents intact

If I kill myself today A cellphone will beep a reminder at 9 a.m. tomorrow and every ten minutes thereafter till its battery dies

A gmail account will gather unread emails from known ids for years before spam slowly takes over

A Facebook profile picture will find that it never needs to be updated ever again

But

The elections will be held on schedule

The monsoons will come again this year

My ageing father will grow even older

The building down the road will be redeveloped

Homes will be furnished

Furniture will be bought, will age, and be replaced

The unmarried will get married

The unborn will be birthed

Newspapers will be printed

And read

And recycled

Tomatoes will be grown

Soup will be made

The kind I was prescribed for a healthier, longer life

You will have it out of a bowl

If you have it next week you will shed a tear in my memory it will fall in the soup you will collect it in a spoonful and swallow it as you choke, and break down

If you have it next year it will be too hot so you will blow on it till it cools and then you will swallow it spoonful by spoonful as you sit before the television watching your favourite dinner-time soap cursing the ad breaks with the same intensity as today

If I kill myself today the telecast timings will not change.