If I Were an Artist

If I were an artist I’d bathe myself in color And allow my art to consume me I’d wash myself with charcoal And paint my features with pastel I would wake in the midst of night And let wonder keep me captive And I would be an instrument In Life’s portrait of Us If I were an artist Depression would regale me And I’d soak in its cryptic darkness I’d pierce myself with modern abstraction And my lines would be circuitous People would look at me crazed And then amazed Because I’m self-diagnosed artistic I would lose myself in creative dreams And hide my most prized reality I am in fact Nothing but a paintbrush Or a pen But as a creator I’m priceless If I were an artist I think I would be myself But finally Others would notice If only I were an artist