Smear--3/31

Smear

I have been reduced
to a red smear.
Someone
clean me up.
I have to be something more
than a dirty word written on the bathroom wall.
I have to be something more
than a constantly spinning rumor mill
cutting through the continuous flow.

I tried to kill my doppelganger
but she ran wild through the woods
with a dead woman's words written across her breasts
and I ran headlong into a tree
trying to find out where the ghost had flown.
I have to be something more
than a brunette shadow.
I have to be something more
than a caricature with a Marilyn Monroe waist
and a heart I can't cough out of my throat.

Reduce me all you need to
because I am content being shrunk.
Yes, girls, I am made of plastic wrap
but I only have one face
and the jar I’ve kept it in has been empty for years.
Take a scan of my brain
but it will look nothing like my heart.