Three in a Row

I am joining an initiative called NaPoWriMo to write a poem a day for the month of April. I am starting a few days late. Here’s my initial entry.

Three in a Row

You say three is your lucky number
And I wonder if the third time indeed will be
The charm

But haven’t there already been three?

The first one was when we were fifteen
I found you sleeping among the empty vials
And called your mother at work
She came home quick

I might not have been aware of the next
As we had fallen out of touch for a while
And then just as your life began to appear more stable
You did it again
Although this time you tried to take someone else with you
And succeeded in sending her across, but not yourself

There was another time a few years later that landed you again in hospital
So maybe that was the third

Perhaps I shouldn’t think of the attempts as the main events
But instead consider the lives you have already taken:
First the baby, then your mother, and soon, at some point, it will be yourself

Three generations of females
A matrilineal massacre
Leaving all the men standing
Strong and bewildered

---