A Clothesline

Jim Rainey

If I had to do it, again —

If I had no choice, but that

I had to go through it, again —

Even if it were fifty years ago

After all those years of therapy

And I can see how far I came since then —

Even so, I would buy a clothesline

at the hardware store

And hang myself in Dad’s garage

And know how kind I was

To save myself from all that pain.