By Cliff Black
In the small hours of the morning
In that darkest time before the dawn
He climbed up on the ladder
And prepared to be reborn
He pulled the noose around his bare neck
He looked down past his naked chest
And there on the table beside his feet
Was the letter that read “it’s for the best”
In the minutes that followed
As the ladder clanged on the floor
He smiled as his wings unfurled
And he danced a jig right through Heaven’s door
Sometime later in the afternoon
In that twilit time before the dusk
She cut him down and dragged him out
And spat on his lifeless husk
She pulled the body down to the lake
She looked down past the mucky shore
And there on the sand beside the dock
She squatted down and pissed all over the corpse
She told no one what he’d done
She knew what they would think
So she filled him up with stones
Pushed him in
And watched him sink
In the years that followed
As he looked down from the cloud he loved so well
He’d question his decision
And she prayed that his soul was burning in hell
Sometimes though
When she felt most alone
She’d just cry and cry
Because her love had gone
And there was no reason she could give him
And there was nothing to be done
There was no way to convince him
That he was the one who shared her life
And she died inside when he hung
Because she couldn’t save his.