I Was an Artist First

I was always an artist first

but words were just a new kind of paint

Not so much a visual medium 

and not so much music

but something in between

With words dripping out of my fingers

like color where once there was nothing but

a blank, open silence

to fill the spaces

the cracks 

the empty, screaming places

that sing instead when they're painted

when they're not so empty anymore

I was always an artist first

which means I was always a poet first, too.