Dear dead unheroes …
Dear dead unheroes & unheroines
Who mangled your own selves - & I’ve known ten,
Hectic, vivid, amusing women & men –
What’s your verdict now? Are you damned for your sins?
Some said so; others shrugged kindly; a few cried
For a dislocated day or month or two
And scratched the scab of no-guilt, as friends do
(As I did) who are abashed by suicide.
But now that an old colleague of sixty-five
Has blown his brains out, I’m inclined to call
A halt to pity for self-pity. All
Those guns, ropes, razors, ovens … Why not contrive
Some evanescent exit, in a style
That will raise at least the ghost of a half-smile?
Dear dead unheroes & unheroines
Who mangled your own selves - & I’ve known ten,
Hectic, vivid, amusing women & men –
What’s your verdict now? Are you damned for your sins?
Some said so; others shrugged kindly; a few cried
For a dislocated day or month or two
And scratched the scab of no-guilt, as friends do
(As I did) who are abashed by suicide.
But now that an old colleague of sixty-five
Has blown his brains out, I’m inclined to call
A halt to pity for self-pity. All
Those guns, ropes, razors, ovens … Why not contrive
Some evanescent exit, in a style
That will raise at least the ghost of a half-smile?
