Action Painting

Spring Poetry Contest - Top Ten Finalist
Hannah Cohen

I am cadmium yellow
explosions,
the bitter smash of bones
in a car accident,
exhaust smoke as lavender threads
under fingernails,
            every internal organ a rainbow.

I am
            blotches,
overexposed splatter and
somehow fully naked,
a tertiary color wheel
of legs and fingers,
thin vomit skids
            jutting out
of the periphery,
my squashed lungs
flung into a gestural
ribcage,
my red cheeks
scumbled onto this coarse
cloth face.

My eyes are black tea
residue in a cup,
            misshapen, messy—perfect.