Ways to Kill Yourself
Ways to Kill Yourself
It seems easy enough.
Plath tried to do it,
wrote Lady Lazarus,
and succeeded,
when ironically
she expected to be saved.
Sexton did it, too,
after causing scandal
and mourning Sylvia
in Sylvia’s Death.
Carbon monoxide killed them,
you know?
One in the car garage,
the other in her kitchen,
with the kids safely tucked in bed,
moist towels
stashed under the doors.
A knife would be simpler,
sharp edge, one slice,
a clean line,
blood on the bathroom floor,
wrist gaping.
Poison is hard to obtain –
but anything can be poison, really;
remember that lady
who overdosed on water?
A rope spiraling down,
noose around the neck –
a cliched death.
Who would call it
the death of a poet?
Besides, the eyes would probably
burst into a bloody mess –
too disturbing for a funeral,
and there is no ceiling fan
in my room.
I deleted Hera’s and my comments by mistake. Sorry.
I read your last two poems and this one in a go and I don’t really know what to say, they’re all so dark. And dark poetry scares me anyway, it’s not my type of thing. I hope everything is okay with you and you are well Insha’Allah.
i love this! i only wish virginia with her pebbles were in here somewhere too, but she probably wouldn’t fit. you’ve achieved something remarkable in this poem.
aik aur cheez though, re-consider the title maybe.
Virginia Woolf – known more for her prose than poetry went on to die in a poetic manner. The reason she is not in here is because she was primarily a prose writer, and the speaker seeks “the death of a poet.”