Taste it, wake from your sleep,
there is a bullet wound in your mattress,
nothing like a nosebleed to humble the greatest,
nothing like a shock to the cartilage to shake the least of us,
nothing like a slap to the face to
smother your plans for the day.

Join the flow,
swim amongst the platelets,
trickle down chins and stain silks,
harden and clot in bruises on the floor,
dab at stains with a blemished cloth,
wipe them away,
wipe thousands away,
clean up the 0 positives, the As, the Bs,
erase the negatives, the rhesus, the rest,
until only the nose remains, proud, pointed, right,
the nosebleed was useful after all,
the nostrils are stained but pure,
but nothing will be the same as before,
the nose soon must bleed again.