After the Attempt

She’s selling her things, posting
each part of her identity: the Pilates
reformer, the beaded ball gown 
she wore for her author pictures, 
the plants she kept alive even when 
she wanted to die. She’s angry someone
intervened, angry she woke up
in the hospital. I tell her I’m glad
she’s still here and she says I’m not.
When I ask her to come to the workshop
I’m teaching in a month she says, I hope 
to be dead by then. I don’t know how 
to respond so I tell her I love you. 
I’m grateful you’re here. The world is better 
with you in it. She leaves the message unread. 

COURTNEY LEBLANC

Courtney LeBlanc is the author of Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize), Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart, and Beautiful & Full of Monsters. She loves nail polish, a soy latte each morning, and tattoos. Find her online at courtneyleblanc.com.