Dark Blood
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Image Description: A person wearing a cross in front of a red background with faint red paint splatters. The person’s skin is various shades of red, blue, and purple.
She said
Boy, you have dark blood
That deep red you almost blue!
When the sun shines the day’s eye blinds you.
Blue-black violet blood
The night, lies behind you
Dark waves flood.
Lookin’ brave the way you do?
Thick tar scars etch your mud.
With fire-fly teeth against black gums like glue.
A dusk hushes about and the shade finds you.
The bleat of black sheep gives you a start.
Cain’s mark upon leather-bound fiction.
Can you feel the running beat of your heart?
Under the depths of your complexion,
Itching arteries as they rip you apart.
A sick internal crucifixion.
Does the pain tingle within?
Does the pleasure prod?
Does Peter call for God to absolve this sin?
Does a broken neck nod?
Can the deep ever win?
When the sun sinks down and the night binds you.
Boy! You have dark blood.
There’s death livin’
in you.