Muse-ing

("The Clown" by Henri Matisse)

Cut me loose!
cries the muse

Let me run
down the page
spilling ink
from my veins,
flinging fear
from your brow
like the foam
off a wave

But please,
before I'm bled—

Let me linger here
on a period.

Roll back and forth
on your fat, unctuous
comma

Get squinched by
an em dash

Don the crooked crown 
of your assonance

If only for one
more line break
or spasm—

Until I've been drained
of all form and substance,
run off the cliff of your
crumbling courage

Where I will collect my 
bones in a sacred 
reliquary

To put them up on 
a shelf in your
closet

So they may sit
and shift

murmur,
foment

For you

And you alone