I’ve been told to communicate with you through dreams through prayer through wishes But I thought I’d write you a letter instead Do they receive letters in heaven? Or hell? After all, you chose to commit suicide. Such an ugly word; one I can’t seem to say anymore
And it was your decision to leave To leave the stress the responsibility the pain And I could understand all of that if not for one thing; You left me
The man so paranoid about my safety You locked everything and once armed me with expired pepper spray rather than leave me weaponless But now you’ve left me unprotected An easy target for anyone wishing to throw darts or shoot a gun
Speaking of guns Where’d you get that shotgun and where did you hide it? Such a messy and grisly weapon of choice For the man with the perfectly coifed hair and the immaculate shirts and sweater vests
I got my driver’s license And now, everywhere I drive, your voice echoes suggestions in my head And I remember you saying so recently that you couldn’t wait to teach me how to drive in snow Why would you say that?
And why did you end everything so close to my birthday? Was the goal to see me turn seventeen because that meant I was old enough to handle your death? Because being 17 years and 6 days old still wasn’t old enough to handle what I dealt with It wasn’t old enough to see you lying there
People say you didn’t mean to hurt me You never meant for me to be the one to find you But who else was going to do it? I mean you must have thought of that
But I don’t want you thinking I was your perfect unblemished daughter before this I’ve made out with a boy I’ve drank alcohol I’ve sexted If you even know what that means Plus, I’ve been dealing with Mom’s cancer for a number of years now
Speaking of which, I don’t know if you’ve heard But Mom’s cancer is back and she’***** the jackpot this time It’s in her pancreas and she hasn’t got very long to live, so maybe you’ll see her soon That is, if you are in heaven
And that brings us to the question doesn’t it: why couldn’t you have waited? Waited for me to get my license for Kristen’s Sweet 16 for my graduation Was life really that unbearably bleak that you couldn’t have lasted one more month? Because I’m lasting
Even though now life seems like a cruel joke An unfair game where things get taken away with no notice and for no reason And that childhood pastime Kristen and I had of pretending to be orphans Doesn’t seem so fun anymore
I can’t make wishes anymore either Because the things I truly want to wish for with all of my heart can’t come true ***** the Disney princesses because even a thousand eyelash wishes couldn’t bring back Just one of your deep belly laughs to wake me up in the morning
And I know this wasn’t your intention, at least I hope it wasn’t, But you’ve left me feeling kind of worthless Because I wasn’t worth saying goodbye to or writing a letter for I wasn’t worth holding onto
And ever since you’ve left, Dad, I’ve felt empty And all of that empty space must be filled with tears because I constantly feel like crying All I want is for you to hold me, just for a minute, But you can’t always get what you want, right?
I guess the emptiness makes sense Even if it’s sometimes a paradoxical emptiness because I’ve been suffocating ever since I opened that door And fell into the abyss