“Le suicide” by Ashley Valente

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Le suicide” by Ashley Valente in her publishing debut.  Valente has honed her craft through years of study at the University of La Verne.  She specializes in short stories and poems and is a classic film buff.

Le suicide

Ashley Valente

Fine stone cold turkey

The cut of a searing hot blade

Surrendering identity

Le fin de vie

on the wrist

where there est non vermillion mouth 

Depression emotion

Fear madness

to call you mad

N’est pas? 

in your 

own villa 

Self hatred 

it smells strongly of money

metallic, like blood 

Marked violence

drips into your eyes

blind to everything but 

Le désir à 

Disappear

where her stomach is 

hard and willing 

for you to swim lower

Life stolen

Pour quoi? L’argent? 

Sex?

Pride? 

Le mensonge de soi

Is the worst

Rope of all 

Ça va? Non. 

No modern man 

Lives well inside

Poet's Notes:  The 1967 film Diaboliquement Votre inspired “Le suicide”. An amnesiac, played by international sex symbol Alain Delon (pictured), is being systematically brainwashed by his supposed wife and best friend, who are both urging him toward suicide. The left oriented stanzas touch on sex as an addiction, the right oriented stanza on monetary greed, before the two sides converge in the final stanza. In addition, the left oriented stanzas may be read together as a stand-alone poem. 

Editor’s Note:  I particularly appreciate the thirteenth stanza, where the erotic and death begin to combine and then come together beautifully in the final stanza.  The first line works on many levels--visceral, as metaphor for drug addiction, as metaphor for stimulated flesh--a strong beginning to a haunting piece.