“Gay Blood”
I’m just not dateable, I think, ashing
the cigarette again on the wood steps.
The wine is on its last Mason jar-full
and you think, Was I born bitter?
And I think, Will I ever not be afraid?
You won’t be able to donate today, she said
after an hour of computer questionnaires,
needle pricks, awkward smiles at a nurse
with color-changing nail polish. Rubbing
furiously she shows me purple morph
to purple-red.
Queer Fear, I say back in the car, sipping
an iced tea. She did look sorry, digging for
the lame brochure and typing my answers
in her computer—unviable, yes.
Undateable, yes.
*
Jack Meriwether is a visual artist and poet from the Midwest. He studied theater in college but isn’t super into musicals. Jack’s work is interested in the mysteries of being a middle child, his quarter-life crises, and Gay Pain™. He’s currently working on finishing his first manuscript of poems.