What we are afraid to tell our children

Before you start, best think it through;
more hands, light work; more haste, less speed;
take care, in all the things you do,
of others’ feelings, others’ needs:
treat them as you’d have them treat you.

All these and other rules of thumb,
words of advice and basic truth,
elders have garnered one by one,
and willingly pass on – as proof
against disquiet – to the young.

But out of fear, there’s one they won’t:
that arguments for quitting life
are barely weaker, more remote –
once you weigh happiness and strife –
than reasons why we mostly don’t.

Published in Pennine Platform no. 83