leech

i need to bleed.
the dark thing inside of me
has fastened itself
on my soul again
and is starting to feed.
and sometimes when i wake up
in the night, sweating
i can feel it
creeping insidiously through my veins
and i know that if i let out all the blood
then it will be dead at last,
but the evil substance
slick and red
stops flowing too soon.
i need more time
to make what is mine, mine
and to rid myself of
the blackness of my heart.
to this end i will enlist
the aid of a knife
and a steady hand,
to help open up
the pulsing tautness of my wrist
and i remind myself between the oozing
that this is a path of my own choosing