Bleeding Poem by Thomas McKelvey

I press down
desperately,
dragging my innermost self
across the page,
my emotions,
bleeding through the paper
like watercolor blooms,
each hesitation
leaving bruises in the lines,
a poetry of self mutilation
as I pry rubies from my veins,
feeling for the moment
of realization,
the sense of release that comes
with just the right words
forming and twisting around my tongue
leaving me speechless.
I want to consume it, the way it consumes me
I want to taste the bittersweet, salted memory
my bruised and swollen lips
softly forming around the tender, self-inflicted wounds of cathartic expression
primal and frantically trying to stem the flow
before I share too much