I Prick Myself and I Bleed by Lynn Beighley

Sometimes my blood is light, watery. Other times it’s so dark that it looks black. I don’t want to know this about my blood, but I do. I know other things about my blood, like it’s often out of whack. I know that it can change within minutes, seconds even. My blood can go from good to bad to good to strange in the time it takes for me to wonder why we don’t talk anymore.

If you gave me your blood, my organs would mess up the gentle balance that your body correctly maintains for you. Sometimes I think that you’re deliberately ignoring me, but then it occurs to me that you don’t care enough about me to go to the trouble of making a conscious effort to avoid me. You aren’t online right now. You were, just for a minute, but you’ve gone. My blood looks bright and it’s good right now.

© 2011 Lynn Beighley, first appeared at Fictionaut.

Lynn Beighley is a fiction writer stuck in a technical book writer’s body. Her stories often involve deeply flawed characters and the unsatisfying meshing of the virtual and actual world. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and currently has 13 books published. You can find more of her work in the e-book “The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology,” as well as at http://www.fictionaut.com/users/lynn-beighley and on Twitter as @lynnbeighley.

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