Like Like

"I like you"
I opened the paper bag.
It was still innocent, pulsing like butterfly wings
incredibly alone and incredibly alive
and I swept my fingertips along the greased sides
gathering a bit of blood as it trembled warily
I inched my hand across the table like easing poker chips forward
into the colosseum of games and fears
where no one comes out alive
"I raise you," I whisper, tipping my closed hand ever so slightly
so that I poured my blood onto the table like turning a time glass of sand.
I waited.
The time was caustic, like a match burning to the end.
Then he nodded in admiration and we played on
like children finding little things in the forest
flowers and twigs and climbing and scraping our knees on trees
trying to make sense of a collection of unplanned entities
"I love you"
I stared back down into my lap, into the bag,
into the dark aorta and the valves
I wrapped my fingers around it and eased it out
with the timidity and doe-eyed fears
of a virgin taking off her clothes
raw, and exposed.
I slid my heart across the table,
"I raise you".

-anna sluder 

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