[Verse 1]
Among the elder men the numbers climb the highest,
A lethality that strikes with scarce a warning sign,
They walk to see their doctor weeks before the crisis,
A final, quiet visit lost between the lines,
The methods chosen carry swift and lethal power,
The firearm kept in bedside drawers for decades long,
Depression roots beneath the surface, hour by hour,
And hopelessness becomes the scaffold of the wrong.
[Chorus]
Depression, isolation, pain and bereavement,
Perceived burdensomeness — the weight Joiner named,
Functional decline and alcohol's concealment,
Prior attempts, a firearm unrestrained,
Ask directly, form a safety plan with Stanley-Brown,
Means restriction, family called into the room,
Indirect refusal — food and medications down —
Read the quieter scripts of self-neglect and doom.
[Verse 2]
There is a word — velleity — the faintest wish,
A wanting without will to act upon the need,
But elder suicidality is seldom this,
Intent runs deep and purposeful beneath the creed,
The man who stops his dialysis and waves the nurse away,
Who hides his medications in a drawer and grins,
Who turns his face from sustenance day by day —
Indirect self-destruction quietly begins.
[Chorus]
Depression, isolation, pain and bereavement,
Perceived burdensomeness — the weight Joiner named,
Functional decline and alcohol's concealment,
Prior attempts, a firearm unrestrained,
Ask directly, form a safety plan with Stanley-Brown,
Means restriction, family called into the room,
Indirect refusal — food and medications down —
Read the quieter scripts of self-neglect and doom.
[Verse 3]
Now rational suicide enters the debate,
A claim that reason governs choosing when to cease,
Yet we must hold the clinical and legal weight,
Distinguish it from aid-in-dying's regulated peace,
The clinician maintains a stance both clear and grounded,
Duty to report and intervene remains,
Not moralist, not passive — carefully surrounded
By ethics, law, and what each jurisdiction claims.
[Bridge]
Postvention follows when the loss has come,
The family fractured, staff in quiet grief,
The care community struck suddenly dumb,
We gather in the aftermath to find relief,
A word for what remains: apricity —
The warmth of winter sunlight on the skin,
We offer it to those who cannot see
That tending to survivors is where healing can begin.
[Chorus]
Depression, isolation, pain and bereavement,
Perceived burdensomeness — the weight Joiner named,
Functional decline and alcohol's concealment,
Prior attempts, a firearm unrestrained,
Ask directly, form a safety plan with Stanley-Brown,
Means restriction, family called into the room,
Indirect refusal — food and medications down —
Read the quieter scripts of self-neglect and doom.
[Outro]
Screen and ask and plan and restrict and convene,
Witness every script between the visible and unseen.