Love in Vein
written by: Fiona Paterson
In my veins such love floods.
Intra-venous.
Yet, Venus, what serum injects so, shooting with such alacrity,
Pumping through the body?
Venous blood de-oxygenated at elevated rate runs towards my heart.
Dark, red, deep
Web of blue sadness.
Oxygenated arterial blood pressures forth sanguine hope.
Cleopatra knew the Venus-venom of ancient desires,
Via vascular vessels it paralyses one’s heart!
As “he loves me, he loves me not” petals fall in fibrillation,
The stagnant chambers of Giselle’s heart crumple.
Miss Havishamesque-veiled avengers long for bursting cardiac capillaries
In the blood-flow of pulsating dance.
His heart still beats in the dawn glow of her constant unflinching love,
The true, pure, unrequited love of Minnesang.
“Is one-sided love better than none?” throbs the blood, rhythmically rushing
With sea-shell resonance through the ears.
Poor Echo in her longing fades to reverberation-
And Narcissus, “youth beloved in vain,”
Gazes eternally at fluctuating ripples of reflected longing.
Werther has only one solution to this pain
And love and life-blood seep and pool from veins and arteries for twelve hours.
- Love in Vein - June 19, 2026
- My Perspective - March 21, 2026
- Bind No Roses with Twine - November 14, 2025
