Josh Dale’s most recent poem to appear here was “Parallel to the Storm” (April 2018).

I Wrote My To-Do List Next to My Suicide Note
By Josh Dale

I’m clinically depressed.
I know it.
No other human needs to tell me the truth.
I’m waning too quickly
for the tide to say:
‘I’m Sorry For What I’m About To Do’

My brain is the autopilot crash-landing on the Delaware,
and I’m taking booze and drugs down with me.
I am my greatest terror.
You can’t stop this.
Only I can.
I experience l’appel du vide every other day;
this being one scenario.
(Don’t get me started, please).
Why look back at the past
when something new is on the way?

Milton, you gave Satan a name
and that name is for me.
I never finished your tome,
because I don’t want to experience paradise.
Forever lost.