Ichor

The father died and then the mother died.

And you were so addicted

to not feeling them, you told no one about the clamp

inside—

around the vena cava. Dam against the blood's

trash—

But I've got you now. Trussed at the waist

in a wooden chair,

odor of spice and

oranges, clove-pierced, incandescent stores

to light our lab's decor—

Here. I saved this just for you.

Beetle-cleaned and sharp at the tip, the finger that shook

in your set face

from the hand that smoothed your hair—

Make a fist.

Wrap the tube round your fleshy arm, pull the black rubber

tight—

will we finally

see the sludge of their accumulated mouths, ah, you've said,

how they poisoned me...

Pierce in

with your mother's finger-bone, taste the slow up-well—

Sweet.

Sweet. Surge ambrosial and clear—

A honey, an ichor.

From those who waited long

in your veins.

Source: Poetry (June 2007).

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/179677

24Pearl: The Magazine