Katharine Diehl lives in NJ and works in education research. She’s been
published in journals online and in print. Her first micro chap is available from Typewriter City. Find her at @kelizabetta."
The Suicides
Those remaining waited the winter
in their furs, in the forest. They refused
to spare the wood to heat water for a bath,
or cold deferred the action.
Even the good-looking men attempted it.
There wasn’t a man left in the city, at a certain
point, that hadn’t tried for it. After a while they
counted as endangered. The government
tried certain initiatives, giving them dogs,
for example, or giving them women. The women
hoped the initiatives would fall through
from lack of funding. That they would stay
in the woods, and alone.