Welcome to poetryvlog.com
A weekly video reading of poetry by the poet.

Lament for a Turkish Suicide Age 22
by Hettie Jones

What she wanted was more
    school or a job, anyway
    she got herself a tight skirt
 
She didn’t want to live hiding herself
 
But her father burned her skirt
    and then three people beat her bloody
 
She lived just long enough to write
    that she wanted to die
 
and then she climbed some stairs
    and stepped into the air
    and left the fabric
    of her brief life

(from All Told, 2003)