The Paintbrush

The Paintbrush

"Baby" I said,
"The blood ain't mine"
but the scarlet terror leaking from me
deafened her to my words
because it was already in her eyes
and she watched me die
helping the nurses
with their red-paint cleaning chores.

"Baby, it ain't blood anymore"
but I was already dead
and the pump that shot the crimson at them
was just useless plumbing

"Look!" I shouted,
my right hand gouging the flesh of my chest
"I don't need it!"
and the red food coloring that was decorating the innards
of the former me
dripped down

I couldnt get it out, that damn pump,
and I cried in desperation
as I peeled the skin off my chest
and they hit me with 20 mgs of morphine
and the sticky red stuff poured out, into my eyes
staining my tears red
and making my beard into
a grotesque
dripping
paintbrush
held by no visible hand
painting nothing