Don't be her shadow

I don't know if any of you have ever had to deal with the repercussions of a suicide but the amazing thing about it is how far reaching the effects are.  People you don't even know are hurt by it.  I wrote this after my niece's best friend hung herself.  I was afraid she might be tempted to do the same.  Normally I wouldn't share something so deeply personal and obviously painful but ... if somewhere in the vast world that is the internet someone reads this and realizes that suicide is an atom bomb of pain and devastation- maybe they will be inclined to seek help.

Don’t be her shadow

She hung her head and cried.

You said, “Your pain is my pain.”

She hung her head and cried.

She cut her wings and fell that day

She cut her wings and fell.

“Fall on my bed, you say I’ll catch your fall.”

You couldn’t know she wouldn’t call.

She gasped and choked,

She gasped and choked

You said, “I’ll catch ..

You said, “I’ll fall ..

She wept and said nothing at all.

She is not you, you are not she

I am not you, you are not me

And what comes next is what is true

If you were me and I were you -

I’d cling to something that won’t shake -

That will not fall

That cannot break

That will not leave

That won’t forsake
    - and cannot die

And loves you no matter what you try.

-JM Dec 18,2014

Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Oh, love that will not let me go

I rest my weary soul in thee

I give you back the life I owe

And in your ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be

My life is not my own

It's yours

My life is not my own

I know it's yours

Oh, light that follows all my way

I yield my flickering torch to thee

And my heart restores its borrowed ray

That in your sunshine's blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be

So light a fire in my heart

And I'll burn for you

So light a fire in my heart

And I'll burn for you

Oh, joy, that seeks me through the pain

I cannot close my heart to thee

I trace the rainbow through the rain

And feel the promise is not in vain

That morn shall tearless be