How To Take Blood From A Doll

Be careful with your crinoline customer

She breaks easily, you see, and unlike you and me

A vessel’s value lies in remaining intact –

Simply no use when cracked, so be careful.

She’s familiar with the needle – it birthed her, after all –

But that won’t stop her from spooking – stupid doll –

Like a fit of the hiccups. Use restraint if you must –

Whatever it takes to pierce the porcelain crust.

Once the tip is submerged in the ceramic skin

You can wait for the scarlet climax to begin,

Proof of life draining from the web in her arm,

Dropping like hailstones with easy-going charm –

But waste no time, for the cracks, they will spread

To her chest, to her face, weaving privative thread

Unless you, Doc, manage to get to them faster

And defeat this insidious absence with plaster.

Lay it on thick everywhere – don’t hold back –

Fill each porous imperfection, seal each river so black –

And if by the end you’re not sure if she’s breathing,

Wheel her out back so they don’t see her leaving.