thanksgiving 2017 poem
it’s thanksgiving so let’s think
about suicide – never far from
my thoughts though I try not to
dwell on it – my second daughter
says my first daughter told her
the “demon” inhabiting her –
she NEVER thought she was ill,
only possessed from the outside –
anyway she was afraid the demon
might demand she hurt one of us
and that (says daughter two) was
why she killed herself. . . . viewed
in this light hers was an act of
caring of altruism of self-sacrifice
for the sake of us and so this day
of thanks I am thankful for the
loving frightened great heart of
my beautiful ill, ill, elder daughter
©2017 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2017.
