Bloody Mary’s Girlfriend

She is bruised like a lilac

As skimming fingerprints

Span train tracks and skid marks 

Across the expanse of her body

All from a single touch--

And still she craves the contact. 

A mere papercut gushing

Rivers of arterial nectar.

She’s baptized Bloody Mary at school 

After one such incident, first period history. 

Her classmates call her name three times 

In the mirrors of their lockers 

When she walks past them in the hallway,

In the bathroom while she’s washing the blood

From her chewed hangnail.

In her girlfriend’s garage, 

Guitar practise, 

Bloody Mary wishes those calloused fingers

Were all over her.

I don’t want to hurt you, her girlfriend

Whispers between strums of strings.

Bloody Mary leads the dance

Against her ballroom body. 

The tickle of a ponytail, whiplashes

Across collarbones, 

A blunt nail grazing her pulse point

Like a vampire preparing to feed 

Or a cult member making

The first sacrificial incision. 

Bloody Mary smiles.

When they’re done, 

Her girlfriend’s entire body 

Will be imprinted upon her own.

Avra Margariti is a queer author and Pushcart-nominated poet with a fondness for the dark and the darling. Avra’s work haunts publications such as Vastarien, Asimov's, Liminality, Arsenika, The Future Fire, Love Letters to Poe, Space and Time, Eye to the Telescope, and Glittership. Avra lives and studies in Athens, Greece. You can find Avra on twitter (@avramargariti).