Kelsey's Toaster: A True Poem about Teen Suicide (Slam What You Will entry)
She woke each morning with a sigh and a moan
She looked through her eyes to the cloudy skies and saw
somehow that the sun still shone.
Her morning feast: a bagel toasted,
one bite already taken out-
She was not greedy, nor impatient - She just
hated anything left
complete.
Completion meant the end
And ending her day before she began
was something her beautiful
but fragile mind wouldn't understand. See
her time was already running
like sand
through the very hands she'd had since birth.
Sometimes she'd breathe deeply and count to ten
those fragile hands
perched on toaster levers
sending shockwaves of perfect balance-
heat and electricity needed when bread popped up-
-a metaphor for her endeavors-
power waiting to well to the surface
Kelsey was her name
Her heart never needed an extension cord
she simply plugged in whatever was near
A cigarette, a bottle, a boy who didn't love her
and I'm not saying this because she's to blame
but I don't think it was because of fear
but resignation - everything was above her
that fragile mind that everything sailed over
Her lips would speak up for you in trials
and down to you for behaving poorly
Her eyes pierced through the lies
but surely there was more to her
Her ears would always be more open than her legs
but there was something in her hearing that missed out-
a tone, a phrase... a poem, gone unnoticed...
or come to her too late, or in in a shout.
Perhaps she couldn't take it anymore
She was heartless when she did it-
proven by the orange coils
and empty bottles strewn about the bathroom floor
Her third finger rubbed her forehead
as she swallowed her last fistful of pills
The perfect balance of heat and electricity
as her blood made the water in the bathtub boil
The cord could no longer reach her heart
but the toaster reached the water - that was all it took
the shockwaves made her mind shatter, no one saved her
no one even looked; the porcelain crypt flooded with power
Her fragile mind torn apart, hands still on the lever
-a smile, completion meant the end-
I held her hands, in perfect balance
A heat and electricity that sailed over her head
She went to sleep with a sigh and a moan
Her cloudy eyes pierced the skies and saw
somehow that the sun still shone
Comments
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lizardoa21
This piece was full of beautiful imagery as it tld this very sad story. What inspired you to write this?
Douglas Larcher
Thank you for your comment. Every year, around the middle of February, I write a poem specifically for honoring my friend Kelsey. They're some of my best work, but one of my newer friends didn't know Kelsey when she was alive. So, she asked me to explain who Kelsey was, and what she meant to me. That was the basis for this poem. I hope you enjoyed it.
Vicalin
This was full of amazing imagery, symbolism, and metaphors. I enjoyed reading this a lot; this poem has so much meaning. I hope to read your other works!