Methods

Guns smell too much like family and home
and the danger we know versus
the danger we don’t know.

Knives taste a little like
ionized air and the good ones
leave their taste in your mouth.

I can never recall how many
loops there are in an official
hangman’s noose, and that

has kept me alive as I
will not violate tradition
for speed in execution.

Pills are too unpredictable
for a man of my size.
How many is too many is therefore enough?

What I adore instead: the cigarette
alcohol drugs laziness fat fast food method.
Happy is the man who goes forward

in that pleasure. There is of course
stroke and slow decline as a possible
result, but I trust my impulsive body

to get the job done swiftly
when the time comes.  And I won’t
even know it’s coming.  I can pretend

it was inadvertent.  I can forego
stealing a gun from the folks.
I can just go with no immediate agency,

exactly as I have lived.