Slow Suicide (A Pantoum)

Below the line of despair, one drifts; 
mind absently unaware. The foreboding, 
Despondent drive, beckons, calls, 
“Grieve joy. Languish here. Dwell. 
Neglect. Liaise with loss.”

Absently unaware, the foreboding
dread seizes upon excess to ruin, 
“Languish. Dwell. Neglect. Liaise with loss. 
Abandon hope. Beget the fatal life.”

Dread seizes upon excess to ruin; 
The slow suicide of self indulgence
abandons hope, begets the fatal. -Life! 
Flee roads well traveled smooth and broad!

Forbid this slow suicide of self indulgence! 
Despondent drive beckoned. Called. Grieved. 
Joy flees well traveled paths, smooth and broad! 
For, bid below the line of despair, one’s mind, drifts.

About this poem: This poem is a pantoum. A pantoum “is a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first.” - Academy of American Poets