Bleeding out or bleeding in
Makes a world of difference as to where you begin
Tourniquets or shadowy silhouettes
That haunt the dreams you wish you had
Instead of nightmares in the daytime
Sleepless thoughts and ice cold stares that seem to define
Every reason and every rhyme
Either way, the end is the trap of a hospital bed
There’s screaming, surely, in one case it’s the ones who love you
For another, it’s the one who hates you inside your head
One is close to the death
The other only wishes it were so
Perhaps breathing the last of his breaths
While the other hopes for an accident to take control
Out of his hands
So he doesn’t have to fight
Doesn’t have to lay awake in a pool of sweat every night
Wondering what it’d be like to bleed on the outside
Instead of hopelessly wasting away, dying alive
The two share very similar fates
For both live in the very depths of the pain
The only difference is one receives aid while the other calls for help
One gets an ambulance, the other a padded cell
The man bleeding to death can be seen in their eyes
He’s visibly anguished as he struggles hard to rise
Dozens gather around him, they call 911, they know he needs care
While at the very same moment, they forget the man who lives in fear
Fear of his own shadow, even greater dread of his own solitude
He’s just as close to death as the dying man
Though no one knows what to do
One may die a hero for shedding blood nobly for a friend
The other dies in shame when the gun’s found in his own hand