https://www.albany.edu/offcourse
http://offcourse.org
ISSN 1556-4975
Published by Ricardo and Isabel Nirenberg since 1998
"The Manly Way Out", a poem by Ellaraine Lockie
He was born and raised in Montana
Montana sired the highest suicide rate in the country
where he learned men don’t ask for help
The manly way out used guns or trains
Montana sired the highest suicide rate in the country
Scant sunlight and isolation bred depression in Montana
The manly way out used guns or trains
The rare womanly way out used drugs or razor blades
Scant sunlight and isolation bred depression in Montana
The man’s first job followed his father’s railroad tracks
The rare womanly way out used drugs or razor blades
Women found comfort from faith, friends, and family in Montana
The man’s first job followed his father’s railroad tracks
Fascination for trains became his fallback
Women found comfort from faith, friends, and family in Montana
The man’s wife took her comfort to California with her
Fascination for trains became his fallback
Boys weren’t allowed to be weak in Montana
The man’s wife took her comfort to California with her
What the man took to California was death by train
Boys weren’t allowed to be weak in Montana
where he learned men don’t ask for help
Montana sired the highest suicide rate in the country
He was born and raised in Montana
Author Ellaraine Lockie’s recent poems won Oprelle Publishing’s Masters Contest and their Bigger Than Me Contest, Poetry Super Highway Contest, Nebraska Writers Guild’s Women of the Fur Trade Poetry Contest and New Millennium’s Monthly Musepaper Poetry Contest. Ellaraine’s poems have published in fourteen chapbooks, on broadsides, buses, rented cars, bicycles, cabins, greeting cards, key chains, bookmarks, mugs, coffee sack labels, church bulletins, radio shows and cable TV. Ellaraine serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine LILIPOH.