About the Poem

This was inspired by an attempted suicide of a friend's teenage daughter!

Why My Child?

by Designer

I stood looking down at the calm of the river below me,
all in its beckoning quiet, lapping gently against the pylons,
as if to say come join me and all will be fine.

As I moved my foot forward, I felt a gentle unseen force pressing me back.
A whispered word came to me, "Why my child," it said,
life is so precious.

My heart cried out all it's pain and anger.
The pain of feeling so alone and the anger that no one cared.
The pain of growing up and the anger no one really listened.

The gentle force whispered again,
Oh! my child can you not see, to end it here would be so selfish.
We pass this way to learn life's many lessons and to fly as high as we can.

As I cried my heart out, the soft whisper continued,
Child do not quit living before you have began to live,
You are priceless as a family heirloom to many. Look and you will see...

In my heart and soul I knew this gentle force was right
but no one could feel like this but me.
Oh! child came the whisper look in the water below
and tell me you feel the same after.

Looking down at the water I saw reflected there a young child
dressed in a tattered coat standing in the middle of a cold, cold room
crying from hunger as the mother looked on in despair.

The water changed and a new reflection appeared -
an old man an woman in a grocery store buying 25 cans of dog food,
The cashier asking them have you a lot of dogs, the answer, no dogs.

the next and last reflection was of a young person walking the halls of congress.
walking picket lines, writing newspapers,
fighting for all that is right and good in this life.

The gentle force whispered again its final time,
look well at the young person there,
it could be you doing what you were destined to do
had you not cut your life so short.

Remember you are not alone and you can choose the easy way
and help no one, not even yourself,
or stay and help many and be blessed for it.
Anyone can be weak, choose to be different, make it count..

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2 Visitor Comments

samantha

i LOVE this poem and the reasoni love this poem is because i tried to commtie suicide when i was 13 and stoped because i realized how much my family would miss me and how much i would miss them!

Amy

I've felt ths way before and I ealized the same thng this person did; that by cheating myself of life I'm not only cheating myself, but others. And it is nothing but selfishness and complete patheticness to try to commit suicide. I'm not a QUITTER!!!!

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