I wish I were bleeding—

Some wound they could see

A scarlet bloom pleading

For mercy on me

I wish I were screaming

Or sobbing on cue—

Some signal worth heeding

Not just “pushing through.”

I wish I were seizing—

Just once on display

A televised spasm

With ratings to sway

No one ignores a good public spasm

All this gate-keeping—

The pills they won't give

But I’m not out here pleading

Just aching to live

That blue double-cross

Whose profits are peaking

Still shielding their costs

From my urgent needing

I’m not some junkie

Who's fiending for more—

But I’d trade this slow freezing

For rot to the core

So call it gangrene-ing

Or something profane—

At least then they’d treat it

Not gaslight my pain

Just give me gangrene-ing

In someplace obscene—

Some code worth redeeming

Worth giving morphine

I wish I were bleeding—

Some wound they could see

A scarlet bloom pleading

For mercy on me