[vc_row row_height_percent=”50″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”3″ bottom_padding=”3″ back_image=”56863″ back_position=”center top” overlay_alpha=”0″ gutter_size=”3″ shift_y=”0″][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ position_vertical=”bottom” style=”dark” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ zoom_width=”0″ zoom_height=”0″ width=”1/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h1″ text_size=”fontsize-338686″ text_height=”fontheight-179065″ text_space=”fontspace-111509″ text_font=”font-762333″ text_weight=”700″ text_color=”color-xsdn” sub_reduced=”yes” subheading=”by Annie Przypyszny”]On Past Suicidal Ideations[/vc_custom_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]At the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland,
there’s a model of a Carcharocles megalodon skeleton.
It’s thirty-seven feet long, suspended from the ceiling
by strong, thin wires, the wall behind it imitating
the blue gradience of the sea. The model is made
of foam; megalodon fossils have largely failed
to withstand the raze and ravage of 3.6 million years.
Its mouth is wide and ready, like a werewolf’s,
and its eye sockets bulge from its skull, the size of two
ominous cups emptied of their intentions.
As I stand before it, just us alone,
nothing forbids me from reaching out
and grazing its false bone with my fingertips.
Nothing forbids me from breaking off a spike
of its being, so big and dead, and plunging it into
my pocket. I wish someone was in the exhibit with me,
someone whose arm I could grasp in entreaty,
beg them to let me tell them about a certain longing
I had 3.6 million years ago.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_center” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1/1″][vc_empty_space][vc_separator sep_color=”color-184322″ el_width=”30%”][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_right” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1/3″][vc_single_image media=”58784″ media_width_percent=”100″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]Annie Przypyszny is a Creative Writing major at American University. Her poetry has recently appeared in 30 North, and will appear in the upcoming issues of The Northern Virginia Review and ANGLES.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]