Sex and Blood
by Jean Jones
Clara: If you could have anything, what would it be?
Darvell: Your pardon.
Clara: In time. Maybe.
Darvell: Your company, then? We have time.
“Byzantium”
Watching Neil Jordan’s “Byzantium,” it occurred to me:
If vampirism is a metaphor, what would the metaphor be?
Death? There is the realization in “Byzantium” that all there is
Is death and nothing else, and if that is the case, why not have
As much sex as possible if that is all there is?
But what is sex without love even with repeat partners
Besides several minutes of joy? Nothing.
Nothing compared to love. Eternity without love is a curse
And eternity alone would be unbearable.
So we keep each other company then.
What is sex between us? Is it like blood, the link between us, and our children?
Blood is like sex, like a desire that we need, even if we don’t want to,
A desire to feed, no matter what the cost, making us do things we don’t want to do,
Because of that need, that desire to feed, that desire for sex…
What is it then, with sex and blood? Is the “petit mort” enough for a moment?
Yes, when a moment will do… What about afterwards? Why the desire to couple,
And then the desire to be alone? What makes that possible?
For me it’s release, releasing everything through me to you, and when it’s done,
It’s done. What is it to you? Love, intense desire for oneness, when we’re together?
I’m not sure. I know that eternity without love is a curse, and eternity alone would be unbearable.
But what else besides that? Is it like sex, like a desire we need, a desire to feed, no matter
What the cost, making us do things we don’t want to do?
What is it then, with sex and blood? Maybe the realization that all there is,
Is death and nothing else?
© 2015 Jean Jones
Jean Jones teaches English as a Second Language Basic Skills for Cape Fear Community College. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio and has a book of poems available on Amazon.com entitled Beyond Good and Evil. He has had poems published in Aphelion as well as Horror Zine online.
Find more by Jean Jones in the Author Index.
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