Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts

Saturday, June 25, 2022

Giving Blood

 "We use your blood for babies," says the nurse.
“Give them my best,” I say. She nearly smiles.

The opaque bag darkens shadow-red
with my corpuscular tithing. Blood's

darkness always surprises me, suggests how
blood wells up from mineral earth like lava.

The blood-room’s hushed, as if we lying
on padded tables were sacrificial goats

with slit throats and the strong nurses, priests.
A tall woman or short man who used to be

a baby will stroll in flowered Paris one
day, pulsing traces of my blood, which

is O-Negative and CMV-Negative. My heart
never thought to teach me what these words

and letters mean. Do vampires carry all
types of blood, and is that why they’re

so pale and mean and unproductive?
I mean, get out of the casket, Drac,

go to bloodoholic rehab, give back to
the community. Just don’t donate blood,

and stay the hell away from babies...

Finished, I'm offered a cookie and juice.


hans ostrom 2022