Imaginary Suicides

Imaginary Suicides

They turn the key in the door, take out
their old, well-hidden letters,
read them quietly, then drag
their feet a final time.
Their life has been a tragedy, they say.
God! people’s frightful laughter,
and the tears, the sweat, nostalgia
of the skies, the landscape’s solitude.
They stand there by the window, gazing at
the trees, the children, all of nature,
at the marble-workers hammering away,
the sun that wants to set forever.
It’s over. Here’s the note —
appropriately short, profound, and simple,
full of indifference and forgiveness
for whoever’s going to weep and read it.
They look in the mirror, look at the time,
ask if it’s madness maybe, a mistake.
“It’s over now” they murmur;
deep down, of course, they’re going to put it off.

On July 20, 1928, in Preveza, Kostas Karyotakis ended his

"short life of a sick and aged child"

with a shot that resonated alone under an eucalyptus. Earlier the same day, he had tried unsuccessfully to drown it in the Mediterranean.

Maybe Karyotakis was only able to "Offer a bullet to his youth and to others a few sore poems."

Past One O’Clock

Past one o’clock. You must have gone to bed.
The Milky Way streams silver through the night.
I’m in no hurry; with lightning telegrams
I have no cause to wake or trouble you.
And, as they say, the incident is closed.
Love’s boat has smashed against the daily grind.
Now you and I are quits. Why bother then
To balance mutual sorrows, pains, and hurts.
Behold what quiet settles on the world.
Night wraps the sky in tribute from the stars.
In hours like these, one rises to address
The ages, history, and all creation.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

At 10:15 a.m. of April 14, 1930, Vladimir Mayakovsky shot himself in the heart with the same Spanish revolver that had  used to represent his voluntary death in the film: Nye dlya deneg radivshisya  where he played Ivan Nov, a homeless poet.

I'm so grateful for this beauty