I'm Sick of Half-Sized Coffins

Every single day, over

5,400 kids, ages 7-12,

attempt to take their own life.

It is the second leading cause of death

in ages 10-24.  More teens and young adults

will be killed by their own heads

than from cancer,

heart disease, AIDS, chronic lung disease, birth defects, 

stroke, pneumonia, and influenza

combined.

4 out of 5 of these kids

have shown clear warning signs

that something inside them is dying.

We lose more children in this country than soldiers,

and still they are taken as a last priority.

Not a single flag flies at half-mast

for these kids.

who leave adolecence .

In a body bag.

Every body is a battleground,

we're digging trenches in our own wrists,

taking shots at every good thought.

This is not

a cry for help.

This is a rally.

This is a revolution.

This is a stop-what-you're-doing-and-listen

before the body count gets any higher.

Listen to the kids drawing maps

on their skin with razor blades, searching

for a way out

without having to leave.

I need the healthy people to understand

that our wrists were not made for attention.

How long are you going to keep pretending

everything is fine?

Everything is dying

on the lips of kids who can't stand

up for themselves, and you're just going to stand

there like you've never heard the word

"suicide".

Like it's never hit

too close to home.

Like you've never found it

worthwhile enough

to be the subject of a poem.

Ya'll, I don't know

how many more different ways

I can phrase this

without the message getting old, but

you know what else is getting really f*****g old?

Hearing on the news that 

another kid hung himself this afternoon.  That

tonight at 11 another family came home

to a body in the bathtub.

And all the parents

are lining up outside their houses

and swearing to the microphones that

they never saw it coming.

It's time for you to hear their silence

while they're still alive.

It's time for you to realize that

silence is not passive.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

This is powerful thoughts and words needed to be read and shared. Your words ring loudly about a big problem.Too many famous people made suicide seem okay. It isn't. I have lost two brothers to suicide. One left a child behind. I hope more people read this poem. Thank you for sharing the worth reading and outstanding poetry.
Coyote

[Katherine Vice]

I am so sorry for your loss, and thank you for such a kind review. This is a very personal subject for me as well, and I write about it often as a way to cope. It means the world to me that others might read this and relate to it or share it with others.

[Coyote Poetry]

Suicide leave the family and friend with a empty place. We need to have open doors and to listen.