A Ballade Of Suicide

[webbykevin]

The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall.
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours—on the wall —
Are drawing a long breath to shout ‘Hurray!’
The strangest whim has seized me . . . After all
I think I will not hang myself today.

Tomorrow is the time I get my pay —
My uncle’s sword is hanging in the hall —
I see a little cloud all pink and grey —
Perhaps the Rector’s mother will not call —
I fancy that I heard from Mr Gall
That mushrooms could be cooked another way —
I never read the works of Juvenal —
I think I will not hang myself today.

The world will have another washing day;
The decadents decay; the pedants pall;
And H.G. Wells has found that children play,
And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall;
Rationalists are growing rational —
And through thick woods one finds a stream astray,
So secret that the very sky seems small —
I think I will not hang myself today.


G. K. Chesterton

 

[badfish45]

TDS -----> Words

OP - I hope you're okay. Please come to the Suicide Support Thread or call up a hotline if you're ever feeling suicidal, or just feel free to toss a PM my way

 

[pk.]

Awesome. Very well written, I enjoyed it immensely.

 

[jackie jones]

Great words. I hope some people read them before they left TDS.

 

[pk.]

Seriously man, really well written, it reminded me of the Sylvia Plath poem "Lady Lazarus".

I know that they convey the theme very differently, but seriously man, your poem was awesome.