Coordinators Highlight

Persons who die from suicide may sometimes contemplate the act while making plans long before the final act. They may show early warning signs which may be casually dismissed. It behoves on all of us to be each other’s keeper and get help where needed in order to avert such fatal outcomes.

1
I cried for a helper
But there was no answer
I tried to hang on
But there was no one to lean on
 
They said am just craving for attention
“Don’t mind him”, “she is just seeking for affection”
I was desperately in need of a shoulder to hold on to
But all i ever got was “Don’t worry, you will be fine. See you ‘moro too”
 
Until that night…that fateful night.
When i lay, pondering over all my plight
Gaze hopelessly fixed at the starry sky
Wondering, what exactly is the next step to ply
 
Staring into the firmament above
Stock-taking ……what /who in life left i have
Then it dawned on me like a new day
There is no more reason to stay
 
2
So i decided i will end it all
Cos it looked like no one really cared after all
And When i am gone and no more
I will mourn and weep no more.
 
So i went ahead to say goodbye
What i mean is i decided to die so i died.
They sobbed and wailed and cried
But it was too late i had already expired.
 
Gone for good, they wept “gone too soon”.
Gone to the next world, beyond the moon.
Leaving behind those i thought didn’t care.
Finally, i thought, i am free from all care
 
3
But little did i know,
That i didn’t know
That the pain i thought will be taken away
Was just passed on from yesterday to today.
 
To be perpetually borne not just by me
But by all i thought i loved too much to be burdened by me.
Tremendous anguish with teeth-gnashing to myself and the world
I had caused, by what i thought was best for myself and the world
 
I wished i could turn back the hands of time
But it was too late, it was beyond the reach and realm of time.
It’s over, The die is cast!
Had I known is always at last.
Please don’t tread this path it’s a no-return journey
A moment after your last breath, it’s beyond recovery!
 

Poem By Dr. Caleb Otu-Ansah
Department of Psychiatry
Korlebu Teaching Hospital, Accra.