Teenage Suicide Poem by Fernando Alvarez

I thought of dying
gazing into the black, seductive ice water
so glassy and so tranquil
I thought of dying
but in my place
Death's bony embrace
clutched listless children
gnawed by hunger;
prisoners on death row
detritus of their own childhoods;
poor shepherds grazing blunt-toothed animals
on land mined hillsides
I thought of dying,
to throw myself away
so much landfill
If it's no use to me
I could give it
I can holler with my lungs
at injustice
join hands in protest
at brutality
I realized that I had long been dead
but I could choose instead
to reawake
and be alive for them