suicide prevention tactics



Allegedly           you should never kill yourself

even as the mercury climbs high enough to strain your neck

never kill yourself    and i know that it’s summer in May

or worse           but never kill yourself
two professors teach me

how to count blessings like inventory
and it hangs like breath

on a cold morning:          NEVER

                                             KILL

                                             YOURSELF
nearly shapes

nearly thick enough to touch

nearly warm enough to bathe in
a stranger online says

          killing yourself is the yourself killer

a stranger online says

          there’s always better things to kill

          than yourself
the professors nod           like daffodils

                                             like houses on stilts

and they write it in a big black book

                     (no prizes for guessing what’s written

                    on the front)
at the back there’s a list

          PTO

          trans people

          a bird, swung low

the vow monogrammed             at the top

of every page
i see it everywhere:

the bright curl of petals

                     against the asphalt

spider legs on the back

                     of a stranger’s hand
the blithe and kitschy truth —

there will be no killing myself tomorrow

instead, something	new

                                          and interesting

                     for each mild day after