STUDENT SUICIDE

When you remember her
wooing our patience together
on the blackboard sentences
now, still in my memory
after all these semesters
only half erased
you staring out the window
in outer space
always fearing that day
was too late
to say anything
wishing to God
that someone will be present
in my hiatus or absence
on leave or at break
or my coming sabbatical
holding up any resentment
or presentment of pain
with omens or amens
in your suicidal short story
at creative writing class 101
with a propitious chance
of it happening on a weekend
when you were away
you took to calling on her
like any other pupil
as she stares at nothing
with hang dog eyes
but not giving way
to half-speech
or fears or prophecies
she herself spoke of
in her writing
when a life is bleeding
and my humbled questions
go unanswered
in her life sentence
with an urgent plea for mercy.