This is somewhat of a symbolic piece with analogies. I’m not really suicidal. However, I have had two relatives that did take their own lives.

Suicide Note

To whom it may concern,

as you might have
noticed
reading my poems
and other writing
I've revealed
a great deal
about myself
and would have hoped
that I'd be better
understood,
better known
by those closest to me -
those that I've
met over the years.

So, don't be surprised
as if you didn't
see it coming
my final act.

In this, my poem,
and my other poems,
I hope to be
different than other
suicidal poets
with whom
I share a kinship...
Poet's like Sylvia Plath
or Anne Sexton,
who wrote in poetic form,
“Wanting to Die.”

Even within
my own family,
there are those that
came before me.

My auntie Rosie,
who ended her life
with a shotgun.

The Native Americans
believed that the dead
visit the living
in dreams
and in fact,
that services as
a certain
proof for them
of our spiritual
nature – our soul.

I've met my auntie
Rosie, in many
dreams, and she
seems so well,
now -
as if it never happened,
her death.

I've met other
relatives
who've lost their
lives in more natural
ways.

They seem so
well and alive
now.

I haven't forgotten
them.

So perhaps,
in this final act,
I'll find that I accomplished
something
for which others
will remember
me.

By Bruce Whealton,
June 5, 2009