Contingency

MORPHINE: Dosage: 200 milligrams, typically 14 light blue tablets.
Timing: unconscious in 5“15 minutes, death in 20“50.

”Thanotogast’s Suicide Methods
As soon as the sun departs the house
At five in the afternoon
He deposits and seals in an amber jar
Another pale-blue moon.
He places the jar on the cabinet shelf
And swivels the handle tight;
Pockets the key in his terrycloth robe
And sits and waits for night.
He can hear the grandchildren crowing below,
Awash in their video games;
He tries for a time to assemble their faces,
Intone a few of their names.
But he can’t remember how many he has,
Or what their small fantasies are,
Or why their mothers and fathers have come
To pack up his things in the car.
He careens on the edge of a desperate thought,
A glimmer from where he’s been”
As evening swallows the amber jar
And the crumbling moons within.