The Bachelorette and My Mother

by Ronald Moran

When I saw on the Internet that a bachelorette
                        once
contemplated suicide, I was compelled to ask,
                        What's
a bachelorette? without even a touch of irony,
                        because

I didn't know, maybe due to my absence in front
                        of a TV;
and then I thought, who hasn't at least once
                        thought of it
and then shelved or erased it without telling
                        anyone,

much less the media, unless, of course, you're
                        a celebrity
or a bachelorette who has had some very dark
                        experiences,
which is what the media thrives on if you're
                        important

and have lived and prospered despite your
                        once having
thought of killing yourself, maybe as a teen,
                        which seems
to be the time in some lives that is so tender
                        death

may seem the only alternative, but only then.
                        I think
of my mother after my father died, the two
                        of them
arguing fiercely throughout their marriage,
                        after which

my mother never threatened suicide but,
                        quietly,
locked the door to her room in my house,
                        placed
a plastic pad under body, folded her arms
                        and died.