Have a Good Life

Update: My student just came to me with her addition, a couple lines at the bottom, in red.

My student wrote this poem for an assignment with very little instruction: You need to write a poem that is at least 20 lines long and then tell me what the main idea of the poem is and tell me what emotions you are using or feeling in the poem.

I present it here with no editing, and it will annoy me to death, but that is how she explicitly wanted it. I tell my students (especially in poetry) that it is okay to break the rules as long as 1) you know what rule you are breaking and 2) you know why you are breaking it. She knew the what and why, so here it is:

Many people say I hate my life,
Why can't someone else be in my
place? Why not live life while you're
alive! Think, do you want to be some
helpless cat dead on the sidewalk. As you
see, lightning is most peoples' killer anger. It roars
to life & it stays for a while. If
you die, many people feel sorry for you, but
isn't death what you wanted? So death is
what you got! Once you die or kill your-
self there are no second chances, you feel
angry & stupid for wanting to die all
you do now is sit down & cry! You wish
u hadn't but you did, now u wish you
still had lived. There are so many things
in life to live for so step back and try to
ignore. People want to bring you down
just look at them and frown, frown, frown.
You will be a clown if you want to die
So don't do it just sit & cry, cry, cry.
Your life is over, it was your choice you
shouldn't have killed yourself, instead spoke
your voice.

I think it is a pretty good poem, and I like that it has an anti-suicide message. This girl has always bewildered me, and I like that she is showing herself in this poem.

Have a Good Life.