Keith Rawson

$25

the nurse
drawing my plasma
is having
trouble finding
a vein

she asks again
about drug use

and
about why I'm choosing
to donate
today.

her fingers shake,
her skin is blotchy

with whiteheads,
her voice is a cat's tail
slammed

in a rusty screen door.

I tell her,

I'm too lazy to work
for $7.50 an hour
rent is
due

in two weeks

and giving blood is easier
than sticking a gun
in someone's
face.


Keith confesses: "Simply put: The narrator is me circa 1995 in Flagstaff, AZ. It's a snippet of conversation between myself and a medical assistant who couldn't find a vein in either of my arms and ended up jabbing me nearly twenty times before she drove it home."


Keith's video intro and reading of "$25":



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KEITH RAWSON's stories, poems, essays, reviews and interviews have been widely published both online and in print. He is the author of the short story collection, The Chaos We Know (Snubnose Press) and Co-Editor of the anthology, Crime Factory: The First Shift. He is a staff writer at LitReactor and Spinetingler Magazine. He lives in Southern Arizona with his wife and daughter.