THE NIGHT BEFORE THE SUICIDE  
A Gothic Horror Story  
by Robert Davidson  
I have killed myself 
and today I attend my own funeral - 
But last night I went down to the morgue 
and there identified your body  
Electric light gives a certain grace to the dead! 
those awful slabs - unknown corpses laid out side by side 
rigid forms cold on marble slabs  
Water distends a corpse unpleasantly 
parchment skin bloats a drowned girl 
Your smile frozen, mocking - your stiff set lips - 
and then comes a moment in which 
I have gone through more than I lived in years  
Speechless with emotion, I cried 
life is very cruel and love the cruelest cut of all 
If I could not have you, why then - 
I gripped your dress and your flesh with it 
and made you face the darkening river. 
You didn't think I'd do it!  
What should I do with my love for you? 
hate it, fear it, because it is too much for me? 
Such cruel stabs of pain love gives - 
I stood on the very knife-edge of life.  
In all things human there is a shedding of tears 
as we struggle with each other for love 
And now in a dream scream 
I burst my skin open, letting the blood run 
I open my throat with a knife.  
As a ghost I stand by 
as they lower my coffin into the ground - 
In all the searchings of my heart 
I have never felt more wounded, more broken, more alone 
Your last words to me as keen as blade-thrusts - 
Now knowing my soul would never rest 
I knew my defeat was complete.  
Copyright 2006  
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