No country for young men
Upon hearing that another young man
A friend of the family, under thirty,
Has taken his own life, by his own hand,
I stop to think. I have no other way. To cope.
Maybe, this whole insincere malarky of 'modern life'
Drove him to the rope, to the sharpened knife.
.....
She is born who is going to decorate my death,
But I am old and certain things are fixed, but, dear God,
Not this, please dear God, no, not this.
Is He laughing at you, at me?
Steve was found swinging on tippy-toes,
under an old beech tree, he'd slashed his wrists
to make a thorough job of it
his hair and eyes were just the same
as when he was a boy.
His body will soon be buried or cremated
On a day much like any other but not, by God,
For his poor mother, no, not for his poor mother.
John Marks
Wed 10th Jul 2019 22:21
Thanks Leon. Some poems you choose to write; others you have to write; this was one of them