Walking on Glass

Fullerton, Alma. 2007. Walking on Glass.

Verse novel. A teen boy struggling emotionally with the failed suicide attempt of his mother. He found her. He got help. But the 'help' now consists of his mother being on life support. Not much of a save in his opinion. Father and son falling apart. Not turning towards the other. Each alone. Each confused.

The first poem:

Just to Let You Know

I begin this
under protest.

The further you read,
the more you invade my mind.

Take something from me
I don't want to give.

My thoughts.

You will enter a place
I don't want to be.

My conscience.

The second poem:

Journals

Writing a journal
for some shrink
won't make me
feel better.
It won't change
what happened.
It'll just make me think,
and I don't want to think.
Mom thought too much.
Look where it got her.

Obviously this is an "issue" or "problem" novel. The language is concise, spare, powerful. The narrator is unhappy--and rightfully so. Your mother being for all accounts and purposes dead and hooked up on life support, your father so far in denial that he thinks his wife will get better--that she's still "alive", and your best friend turning into a monster are all good reasons not to be yourself, to be miserable, to be angsty.

Another perspective.