Pause … Suicide

6:01, the alarm rings,

Start to a busy day,

Shower in a rush,

Breakfast even faster,

Ran to my bus,

Heart pounding in my chest,

Geneva station,

Train to Basel,

Back to back to meetings,

No time to pause,

No time to breathe,

My heart pounding in my chest,

Faster and faster,

5pm meeting ends,

Quick hand shakes and good-byes,

Uber app open,

Searching frantically for my ride,

Imploring the driver, please go faster

Finally in my train,

In back to back telecoms

Loud background noises,

Long no signal tunnels,

Am I going to miss the content,

And my heart beats faster and faster,

And then the train stops,

In the middle of nowhere,

Around me, a duvet of darkness

No sound, utter complete quietness

Over the microphone, the conductor annonces,

An accident lies ahead

Some poor soul, sad and depressed,

Jumped unto the train tracks,

And is no longer,

Pause!

Around me busy commuters,

Annoyed by the delay, the disturbance,

And me, thinking of that poor soul,

And of the people who loved him or her,

Their lives forever changed by a day like today…

© Rebecca Stevens 2020