You stand against the
wall, arms crossed, sardonic smile
immune to laughter.
.
You’ve seen darkness that
they can only imagine,
and you are hardened
.
from the admiration
of flirting gazes because
your heart is cold,
.
Frozen by bad maternity
and noncommittal
paternity.
.
Their bad judgements burn
within your heart until
destroying misery
.
means destroying
everything you should love,
innocent or guilty,
.
and then it means
flash firing your future,
scarring your life upon ours,
.
like a victim of
Hiroshima’s bombs whose life
vanishes in an
.
instant, leaving only
a silhouette, burnt white
on blackened walls.
.
.
I’m still processing the recent murder/suicide of a former student. The idea of an image being frozen in memory by tragedy called to mind the silhouettes created in Hiroshima when people’s shadoes were left, though their bodies were vaporized. While at first glance a free verse, the poem has some form: each triplet stanza follows the haiku syllable count (17 syllables per stanza) to reiterate this idea.
Shawn L. Bird 
Very well said. I have lived through a suicide in our family and the last line “scarring your life into ours” so well describes what happens. There is forever a scar and and the questions you always have: could I have been kinder? More understanding? And no matter how much you think you could have prevented this, you couldn’t. But you still ask.
I could see his darkness, and discussed it with him at the time. It’s long since he was in my class room. I just wish he’d understood that there could be justice for him without drastic actions.
Reblogged this on Spontaneous Creativity.
Thanks for the re-blog!
This is a wonderful poem about a very unfortunate truth 😦
Yes, very unfortunate. Thank you for the compliment.
“Flash firing your future” …. Good
Thanks
Our race created gunpowder and the gun, the improvised explosive device and the scud, the firecracker and the atomic bomb. We also do haiku and sonnets, civil disobedience and public service announcements, whole blood donation and classroom teaching. The better beings that will follow us will partake of the best and put aside the rest, I so hope.
Fingers crossed.
Abuse can eat away your heart, your mind, even your very soul. There’s nothing rational about mental illness. I think it’s reasoning exists on a plane all it’s own.
Yes. Very true.
Very poignant and so eloquently stated. My nephew committed suicide and this is what it feels like. Much love and big hugs to you.
Condolences to you and your family.
I know this is an old post, but I ran a seminar on nuclear war for nerdy adults at school last year and this struck an obvious chord. Each speaker had theme music and one of them was by a group called Postal Service. It’s not normally my cup of tea but for some reason the song stuck in my head. Give it a shot if you have a spare couple of minutes.
Thanks for the link!