SUICIDE BY TEXT
in the canal they found her
iphone 5 in the undergrowth
drowned in the night
found in the morning
Her parents abroad flying home in the sun
both distraught, the truth just dawning.
Investigations under way
her phone was checked for content
suicide by text found
with a little dinky pinging sound.
An online profile soon emerged
a simple tragedy half submerged.
Apparently she'd fallen in love with a perfect dream
the way girls do.
She and the man had never met
the romance blooming with online grooming.
The phone had become her confidante
her bestest friend in all the world
the deeper mysteries not yet unfurled
as her life lay on the slab uncurled.
The bigger tragedy parents knowing not the secret guarded
nor the distance run of the life discarded.
Stu Buck
Sun 6th Sep 2015 08:36
ray, this is fantastic. the things i love about it are myriad, but heres a few;
1. the use of childish language (dinky pinging, bestest) to symbolise the youth of the protagonist.
2. 'An online profile soon emerged
a simple tragedy half submerged.'
3. the poem is particularly cutting for me - i both met my wife online in a blog/chat room and know people who have lived miserable periods of time due to cyber-relationships.
4. the last lines, which betray the parents but sympathises at the same time. it can be so hard to monitor what goes on in a childs life can it not?
it really is a great poem ray.