Brialee Turner

TRIGGER WARNING this poem discusses topics of death, violence, self-harm, and suicide.

There are so many ways.

So many ways,
That people have told me that they
Want to die.

I have seen so many scars,
Heard about the weapons,
The pills,
The firearms,
And the detailed plans.

Sometimes there are patterns in the
Hopeless drowning,
Other times there is a singularity
Of thought.

They are desperate,
They want to pain to end,
They want the world
As they know it,
To be gone.

To pause the suffering.

They have selected a way to die.

And as I hold their pain with them,
(Just for fifty three minutes)
I can’t help but think of
All of the beautiful ways to live.

I know that this hope
Must come from themselves,
That they will be the leaders
On this journey to find
Magic and light.

And so until they find the
Ways that they want to live,
I will speak from my heart
From the feelings
of my treasured moments.

There are so many ways to live.