Reasons to live

Ann Tweedy

1.
Sometimes instead of action
a poem 
                            imitates      emulates

2.
The website on methods instructs
pain free are the holy grail

and proceeds to rate each of the most popular
for lethality, time, agony.

3.
Cutting your wrists-- 
6% effective but dials in at 71 
on the pain scale. The images in my head--

mischievous, misleading, disingenuous.

Rationality requires smooth wrist 

      skin
                          riffle of 
                                             branched
                                                                  blue

4.
Charcoal burning reports Wikipedia 
is relatively painless and lethal.
A species of carbon monoxide poisoning,
it is not featured separately on the methods site,
but carbon monoxide in general is 71% effective
and rates only 18 in agony. Wouldn’t it be nostalgic?
A little hibachi in the house–summery whiffs 
rise and fill your nostrils. Red-orange glow 
                                                                           beguiles. 

5.
To issue 

suffering 
a cease-fire
verges 
on
beau


ty

but acting it out takes      wherewithal      verve      doggedness--
      desire 
not just to end 

but to hurt.  
And, only 1 in 26 
      succeed, 
meaning 

25 out of 26 
breathe      on.  

---

Ann Tweedy's first full-length book, The Body's Alphabet, was published by Headmistress Press in 2016. It earned a Bisexual Book Award in Poetry and was also a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and for a Golden Crown Literary Society Award. Ann also has published three chapbooks, the first of which was reissued by Seven Kitchens Press in April 2020. Her latest chapbook, A Registry of Survival, was published by Last Word Press in December 2020. Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Literary Mama, Clackamas Literary Review, and elsewhere, and she has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and two Best of the Net Awards. A law professor by day, Ann has devoted her career to serving Native Tribes. In 2020, she moved from Washington State to South Dakota to join the faculty at University of South Dakota School of Law. Read more about her at www.anntweedy.com.