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Posts Tagged ‘suicide’

Before

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on March 13, 2022| 4 Comments »




Before the gun,
before the dark,
before the conversation
broke, before
I knew there would be
a before, there was
a love that touched
it all. That is the one thing
that hasn’t changed.

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Not the End

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »

 

 

 

And as the demon prison is opened,

it’s already half past ten, and my daughter

and I have already read an hour past her bedtime,

but the demon prison is open, and so

I promise just ten more minutes, but then,

at ten forty, our hero is clashing swords

with the demon who betrayed him

and so we read on to the demon’s demise.

 

Just yesterday I spoke with a friend

who told me she thought about killing herself.

We sat in the garden surrounded by cosmos

and overly abundant chard.

Life is not like the book where we know

there will be a happy ending,

which makes it harder

to want to turn the page.

 

Tonight, when we put down the book,

just as the next demon taunts

our hero, we turn off the lights

and feel the giddiness of the battle

pulsing through our bodies.

We giggle too loud and shudder

beyond our control. It is difficult

to find enough peace in ourselves

to welcome sleep.

How we long to turn just one more page,

just one more page.

 

May we always find reasons

to go on, believing that

something good is about to happen.

I may not believe in happy endings,

but I do believe in happiness,

the way it finds us when we least

expect it. Like the zinnia in my garden

that for months has looked shriveled and dead

since a spring frost, and just today,

after the big rains,

formed four green leaves.

 

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After Hearing She Took Her Life

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 19, 2017| 6 Comments »

 

 

 

Before the sadness comes the shock,

like snow falling on sunflowers,

like nightfall at noon. And then

the tears catch up. And then

the wondering, What could I have done?

The urge to hold her now that I cannot.

The ache to hold her daughter, to hold

her son the way that she once held

my children when they were young.

What is there to do now but cradle

each other, to cry, to recover, and again

to shudder, to cry. To say to each other

that this day it hurts to be alive.

To notice that despite grief,

the larkspur are in full blue.

The river curls notes around the rocks.

The bees immerse their bodies

in snapdragon blooms.

How it’s never been more important

to know this—that the world

is beautiful. That even as we’re held

by tragedy, here is tenderness.

Here, always waiting to be opened,

the invitation to love.

 

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On the Street, at the Edge of Evening

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on October 7, 2016| 7 Comments »

 

 

 

I am sorry to be so deep, he says,

his voice broken. The shade

pools around us as we speak.

 

He tells me of his surgeries,

then notes the gold in the leaves.

My teacher, he says, he took his life.

 

I wonder at the light that seems

to infuse the difficult words.

He was my hero, he says.

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You Were Taught to Take Chances

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 15, 2012| 4 Comments »

When you stand on the ledge
six stories above the street,

you are perhaps lost, but
there is not a lot a map can tell you.

There is back in the window,
and there is down.

What is it that keeps you
from jumping.

You wouldn’t even need to jump.
Just trip. Lean. Step. Or if you sneeze,

it could be considered an accident.
Somehow easier that way to imagine it,

but how to explain the fact that you
climbed through the pane

out onto the railingless edge.
Someone would have to clean up

the splatter. That thought
is enough to hold you here,

back against the brick.
It’s not that you want to die.

Below, the cars crisscross and merge.
But how to go on living.

Beneath you the ravens weave.

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