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  Feb 9 Avni
Peter Gerstenmaier
I can feel the rough rope
Gently caressing my neck
Embracing it like an old friend
I'm not afraid, I'm just tired
So very tired of everything

So I take a deep breath, 1, 2, 3...
And in a passionless swift move
I kick the bench under my feet
Dance in the air for a little while
Until I finally find my peace
Note 1: this poem was reported and taken out of HP. After a review, it went back on (gladly Eliot York has more sense than the one who flagged it).
Note 2: if you're having this kind of thoughts, please, talk about it. Seek help!
Original note: Another nightmare I had last week. Woke up sweating and frantically kicking the air.
It's not like suicide is a new thing to me - I attempted it when I was 15... but I haven't had suicidal thoughts in many years. And that's as scary as it gets. I don't wanna give in to them.
Avni Feb 8
(TW: Self-Harm and Suicidal Ideation)

I wish the night was more than a fleeting mirage
Coming one moment and leaving the next
I wish the darkness would surround me in its velvety cloth
Not the absence of light, but the absence of life
The darkness of total and permanent nothingness
I wish my capillaries, veins, and arteries would peal open
Slowly, agonisingly
I want to watch the final drop of crimson drain from my body
Creep slowly down my finger
Trancing the path already traced by his brothers
He will linger at the very tip of my nail
Before falling
Plummeting
Careening
Into the tiled floor
Only then will I shut my eyes
I will let darkness trail his supple fingers down my body
Encasing me in his eager embrace
He will wind himself around me until there is nothing left
But for a small white corpse upon a brilliantly painted floor
And no one will find me
Because no one will be left to care
It took me some time to decide to share these past few poems, especially this one, with the Hello Poetry community, but I have decided that I should. Thank you all for your support, either direct or simply by providing your art for me to find solace in. I attempted suicide at the end of the past year and I am still working through the aftermath of that. I wrote this poem about a month after the attempt.
Avni Feb 8
(TW: Self-Harm)

If everyone who loved me were gone
I would be free to give my body
To the only one who never leaves
The only one who can press
his silvery lips to my skin
And bring me contentment
I can rest in his arms knowing I am safe
No matter how hard he bites
He will always be there to protect me
Why must a lover be judged?
Avni Feb 8
If
(TW: Self-Harm and Suicidal Ideation)

If you could see into the riot that is my mind
You would not begrudge me my knife
You would not withhold from me the ledge
Which I only cling to for your sake
Unsure if letting go would help or harm you
I’ve read the statistics
Would my departure bring about your ruin?
Or am I truly the baggage you are forced to carry
The burden you bear out of a sense of obligation
So I stay, forever uncertain
Indecision is not a comfort that is granted me
Avni Feb 8
My pastor told me:
This world’s as close to heaven as you’ll ever get
I don’t even care that he’s right
I’ve spent enough years begging the sky for answers
To know that clouds don’t speak
The one thing I know for certain
Is my demons are incredibly devoted
And the devil is more attentive than the angels
  Oct 2024 Avni
Peter Gerstenmaier
It'll all work out
It'll all work out
It'll all work out

These are the words
I've been repeating
To myself nonstop for
The past few months
Like a compulsive
Prayer

But I'm not sure
Of them anymore
To be honest I'm not
Quite sure of anything
These days other than
Death and taxes
A piece about anxiety... plus, I'm a tax auditor, so a little joke about work as well.
Avni Oct 2024
Keep the burdens hidden deeply
A hard and bittersweet refrain
A tide that washes over sand
With cold that triumphs over rain
Which freezes over memories
But even that couldn't hinder pain

The times will change, the soul is fickle
Not just one more thing and one still
But multitudes that will overcome
A sooty glass that light can't fill
Yes, times will change and places too
A clock with chime sharp and shrill

The world’s no longer in my grasp
I find the darkness is within
But the light is gone outside as well
Elbow on my desk, hand cradling my chin
While cold and multicolored figures
Come to gaze upon me for then

I am a black and white shadow
A gray that cannot be unbroken
Opaque as ever years and years
A fog born forever as this token
But nothing that passed brings forth emotion
I will stand forever with words unspoken

The world is different from the other side
I draw the curtains, shut out the night
But with that I shut out the day
Beautiful colors, lovely and bright
Bolted door and comfort lonely
Safe and far away from sight
I wrote this a couple of years ago and am not entirely happy with it, but am not sure how to improve. Any suggestions?
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