When My Phone Autocorrects Suicide to Succeed

I think it knows     something 
I don’t I don’t     feel successful     despite     
the participation trophies     I lined up 
as a child     on the dresser in my bedroom     

the silver soccer trophy     with its faux 
marble base     from the spring of ’96     
or the gold and red basketball trophy 
from ’98     each tiny plastic man on top 

in     mid-kick     or mid-jump     forever 
frozen in the moment     right before 
scoring     I didn’t we didn’t     win     
either season     any season     in any sport 

I ever played     but still     I was told 
I had to     keep playing anyway 

WILLIAM FARGASON

William Fargason is the author of Velvet (Northwestern University Press, 2024) and Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara (University of Iowa Press, 2020). His poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Narrative, and elsewhere. He lives with himself in College Park, Maryland.