Lab Tests

by Arial Hart

Duke University

Arial Hart is a Senior at Duke University, double majoring in English and Political Science with a minor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She graduates in May 2022, and looks forward to volunteering with AmeriCorps the following year.

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Lab Tests

Blood leaves my arm with a slow pulse.
It's thicker, darker than one would expect—
some macabre dye to spill from the site of
IV injection, never done right on the first try.

Measured, steady drip- a vial reddens to ruby
from the artificial vein extending out of my flesh,
needle jutting up from strained skin
covering the fullest veins of my hand.

It’s common to look away from this,
to be horrified at losing such lifeblood.
I give it so frequently, I’d expect to adapt.
Yet every time, a revelation:

So fragile and resilient, they drain me
to fill me up again.