The Five Stages Poem by Joshua Howell

Staring at the glass in the kitchen
Thinking about ending it all
The gun in his mouth as he cries
But feelings, not the bullet, burst through his skull
First comes the denial
As he spends his time alone
Huddled up in the corner of the room
Silently in his own zone
Why did this happen to me
As the tear streams down his cheek
He coughs once and chokes
And the tears flow like a creek
Next comes anger
Wishing she would call
Staring at her contact name
Then throwing the phone at the wall
He stands up and screams
He breaks the mirrors glass
His knuckles pale with blood
His heart a large black mass
Next comes bargaining
As he evokes the almighty God
He prays for another chance
With a nasty sarcastic applause
He looks at himself in the broken glass
Staring and making a fist
Slowly coming to the realization
That God does not exist
Next comes the stage of sadness
As his heart turns to a lump of coal
Though only part of his heart is left
She took some and it is not whole
The tears continue to stream down
Like a tropical island typhoon
He throws himself around the room
Bouncing around like a cartoon
Last comes acceptance
As he looks up to the sky
He stands up in the bathroom
To snort an oxy and get high
He realizes he is not good enough
And that he never truly was
He sits back down in the kitchen
At the table just because
He looks at the gun again
And sings the same old song
He sees blood on the wall behind him
Not knowing he’s been dead all along