Content Warning: blood, dark themes

Nikki Dudley – B/_{}[]!>

The word was onomatopoeic – gushing fluids

over easy – veins crawling

an infestation that seeps through

My small [body] needed the plasma

to stick around long enough

in a box learning to breathe

                                                 unassisted

But to clot to ooze to pump to explode

from a body seemed a paradox

to keeping us alive. The word haunted me

in my ear my skin the drum of my brain

Then I watched a horror film

and realised: it was all a joke if you remembered

fear is assigned to the things that can kill you

thanks assigned to the things

that make the heart              be                    be                    beat