Say Stop.
Keep your lips pressed together
after you say the p:
(soon they’ll try
to pry
your breath out—)
—
Whisper it
three times in a row:
Stop Stop Stop
In a hospital bed
like a curled-up fish, someone’s
gulping at air—
How should you apply
your breath?
—
List all of the people
you would like
to stop.
Who offers love,
who terror—
Write Stop.
Put a period at the end.
Decide if it’s a kiss
or a bullet.
Poem: Instructions for Stopping
By Dana LevinSelected by Victoria Chang
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/magazine/poem-instructions-for-stopping.html
I first read this poem in the anthology “Bullets Into Bells: Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence.” This poem sat alongside Kate Ranta’s description of being shot by her ex-husband in front of her 4-year-old son. Dana Levin is the modern-day master of the em dash (Dickinson is the other). In the first section, the em dash mimics breathing out. In the second section, breathing in. And in the final section, “Who offers love,/who terror — ” it acts more like a question mark. I also love how this poem gives us instructions through the imperative — meaning, the poem is giving us hope to imagine and construct a nonviolent future.