Exercise in Mortality

If you're like me you blow your nose in the shower.
If you're like me, sometimes you overdo it.
Want an exercise in mortality?
Hold your hand out and let your bleeding nose drip into your palm.
See that bright red bloom spreading?
Watch the next drop double into the first.
Watch the third, the fourth.
Bright red because you're still alive.
Get the feeling that if you didn't do anything,
In thirty minutes they'd know downstairs that something was wrong;
They'd find you in a cold shower, bloodless and pale.


Step back and let water splash into your hand.
Your red blood dissolves and dilutes until Kool-Aid coloured.
Your nose tries to keep up, but the water flows like time;
Tilt your hand and let your blood hit the tiles.
Watch long enough and bright stars of fresh red explode between your feet,
Chasing the diluted pink with a droplet's red glare.
But the more water you spend the more you blend;
And the cliche continues,
And your crimson cocktail;
Water, time, and life,
Goes down the drain.