A 1989 Incident In Holden Hall

Sunday Night, Welcome Weekend in Collegetown
and the dorms are filled with newly minted students
about to learn that the secrets to college living
amount to liquor, sex and David Lettermen late nights;
but in a fourth floor dormroom in East Holden Hall
a freshman coed, friendly and well-liked by her hallmates
prepares a final drink to help her sleep Sunday Nights:
twenty valiums with a wine cooler chaser
make their way down to the woman's stomache.
She lies down; already she feels sleepy
as the imagines the next world to be different; and better

What would cause someone to off themselves the one weekend
so symbolically filled with the promise of a new life ahead of them?
Was she assaulted the night before and had shame filling her cup to overflowing?
Was her move completed with an unuttered exclamation of "And Don't Come Back?"
Did she have a troubled adolescence and figure the isolation from family
was what she needed to finish what she had long wanted to do?
For all we know, it may have been an accident --
A quaalude instead of a valium, or vodka instead of water
could push her over the edge without any evil or deadly intent.
It could also have been a setup; a long-time enemy following her
and feeding her stuff, proclaiming herself a friend.
Sadly, she's not around to answer that question
and we're left wondering what happened, and why...