Ken Anderson
Not: Darling, I adore you.
But: Dear Unit of Blood, Type A.
Thanks for the pint.
I’d appreciate a quart by the full moon.
I, doing what I have to do, suck.
You, doing what you do best, bleed.
So drip, drip, drip, my grape.
Another drop. Ah!
But not too much. Let me perform the phlebotomy.
Let me draw off the red wine in your cask.
Look deep into my eyes. Sleeeeep.
No crucifix or garlic saves you now.
Sweetheart, I love you this way–with venipuncture.
It’ll only hurt when I insert the fangs.
***
Ken Anderson was a finalist in the 2021 Saints and Sinners poetry contest. His novel Sea Change: An Example of the Pleasure Principle was a finalist for the 2012 Ferro-Grumley Award and an Independent Publisher Editor’s Choice. His novel Someone Bought the House on the Island was a finalist in the Independent Publisher Book Awards. A stage adaptation won the Saints and Sinners Playwriting Contest and premiered May 2, 2008, at the Marigny Theater in New Orleans. An operatic version premiered June 16, 2009, at the First Existentialist Congregation in Atlanta. The Statue of Pan (screenplay) was an Official Selection at the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival.