Headline on Page 4

I dared not buy a rope
for fear someone would ask
why (no one would have),
so I took my biggest bed sheet
tore it into two long strips
twisted it into a rope.
I had to test the fan hook
you can never tell
with these cheap rooms;
I didn't want to just break a leg
or my back
that would be both embarrassing and troublesome,
but both the rope and hook held.
I wondered when to do  it
somehow the quiet of night seemed right
it felt incongruous to do it with
the kids playing in the park outside.
I didn't leave a note in the end
because you wouldn't have understood
anyway and there was nothing
I wanted to say
that wasn't a bit pathetic.
I was afraid, I won't lie
but then the sheet was around
my neck and my feet off the table
I don't remember much
except that in about ten painful seconds
I blacked out.
And now, five days later
you are reading on page 4 the headline
"PhD Student Hangs Himself in North Campus PG".