A Bloody Stain Poem by David Keig

I looked and saw a bloody stain as if it came from me
It was thick and red and seemed to ooze out from my own belly
Then another spot upon one leg and another on my chest
I was climbing up a stairway and just couldn’t find my breath
The red! The red was all around and had me slipping on the stairs
And now it felt like raining and was running down my hair
I then looked up and then I saw the strangest sight I’d seen
Blood droplets on the ceiling falling in a steady stream
I knew it could not be my blood but it was raining down so fast
Not gentle like the rain itself but sticky and – aghast -
I saw a sluice of redness come sweeping down on me
And then I turned a corner and that blood was blinding me
I was swimming in some entrails that I could not even name
It was like being in a butcher’s or in some suicidal game
I then stood straight and shouted – I shouted right out loud
‘I will not retreat just for fear for I am strong and proud’
I no longer climbed all frightened – an answer I did crave
And at that the top of those red steps I did find my mother’s grave
Beelzebub looked in the mirror and then he turned a page
He was now fearful for himself and of my incessant rage
I slayed him on those foot steps so he couldn’t rise at all
And with his death all of that blood did vanish from the floor.