In my textbooks

They list suicide analytically

Brain chemicals

Neurotransmitters

Depression.

But they fail to mention

The devastation

The brutal pain left

For the survivors to face

The questions no textbook can answer

Why, what were they thinking?

What was missing in their heart?

Or worse why was their heart so heavy?

Left notes don’t tell the whole story

Neither does the broken heart stories

Others share, but answers evade

Suicide is like walking in dark woods

At night

Fighting for a flicker of light

To guide us back.

A light that isn’t there,

that can’t be seen.

Adrift in guilt

In shame

In loss that never heals.

Always wondering, always broken

Nothing a textbook can fix