I enjoy writing poetry in my spare time. I don’t always write about mental health in my poems, but I thought I’d include one that might be moving to people in our community. This is a recent one I wrote about remembering the last time I almost left. I decided to burn the suicide note in the end, and to try to keep making it. Hopefully it brighten’s someone’s day.

:Burned Forever:

A cold winter, weakening vision Felt in the bone Hesitation at tomorrow Is that all this is At the last A past year’s memory

Don’t bring cruelty Upon this moment when The back door is open Turning to see the branches outside Hung snow Clinging on

It was warmer then And Spanish moss In the live oaks Wisped in a June breeze On a final walk Over cracked and past due concrete

Above, a flock Made its way
In hopes of having A temporary home Somewhere in the nearby marsh Which empties into the bay

The shape of a bullet Is like the acorns in the grass Propelled and passing into Which suggested in their similarity The difference between now and then In the soil which takes and returns

I meant it sincerely When I lit my leaving words

For if it ends in fire, let us burn together Having another Is the only chance Because at the end
Was merely the thought you had To call and ask how I was doing

It was the bright of the flame of me That turned the letter to ash Which left as the winter goes And after this bitter frost melts The birds will return, the seeds will take root Finding their way into a future

Just as I did, Through the back door

Just as I do now, In the promise of summer