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"Meet me on the other side"

Why are people so surprised at suicides?

You crush and break spirits.

You point fingers and accuse.

You stand by and watch someone falter

And when they're trying to lift themselves off the floor,

You kick them down again and again.

Then you find them one morning hanging

from a ceiling fan inside or a tree outside

Or with the veins in their wrists slit just so

Or bloated and blue with an uncapped empty

bottle of pills on the floor

Then, you act surprised.

Why? How? Such a coward

Did not think of the family

Look at their pain 

You think they are in pain?

You should have peeked inside the soul of the 'coward'

for once, and then you would know what pain feels like

It's like nothing you could ever imagine.

Because much before the thought of suicide is even entertained

The pain has turned into a black cloud of despair

that bursts and leaks out its viscous stinging ink all over

Like hot tar laid thick upon a dusty road

It spreads and covers everything.

Would you sit around and wait for that to dry?

So bite your tongue and look inside your heart of 24 karat gold

And be grateful that the blackness did not corrode you.

Then, move on because life is for the living.    

The Cloudcutter

5 comments:

Pat said...

It is so tragic when family and friends have no conception of what the potential suicide is going through until it is too late.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I once met a girl, a really good girl, who said that people who commit suicide are cowards. I tried, tried, and tried to convince her that it's not cowardice, I tried to explain about the dark despair that depression brings...I don't know much about it except what I've read and heard...but she refused to see.

The thing is, a lot of people who are good, truly good, don't understand. They think that the depressed person just has to get on with his / her life.

The Cloudcutter said...

We are all slow to understand and quick to judge. A family member recently committed suicide (in May). I'm trying to figure out why and although I may have some of the answers, I'll never fully know... But I'm sick of all the judging and jumping to conclusions that's going around. Whether dead or alive, everyone on this planet is going through his or her own private heaven or hell. It's what makes us different and unique.

Gabriella Kadar said...

Here are the two books I found most helpful when.

Both are by Thomas Joiner

'Why People Die by Suicide' (Harvard University Press, 2005)

'Myths About Suicide' (Harvard University Press, 2010)

These two books will give you so much information and understanding.

How do we know said...

I loved this post. more ppl need to say this.