Avete ballato con la morte (You Danced With Death)

[Poppydragon]

This is the first in a series of Vampire poems that started off as a conversation between Vampire and Victim, the style is deliberately over the top and also uses a faux sonnet form to give it a more Gothic feel, the remainder aren't quite as OTT as this one but still tell the tale. Hope you enjoy.

Avete ballato con la morte,
unnatural child, devil's bastard get,
your father in blood, not your father, yet
the only link with your damned company.
Banished from walking the day by decree
of One whose strength against you is set.
whose tenacious hunger, should you forget
is always right there, waiting and ready.
She already claims your shadow her own,
and your corrupted flesh she will reclaim,
as with boundless patience she simply waits.
Morti viventi, she has already won,
Nature, this earths Green Mother, Il Grande Dame,
whose hunger your once cheated death will sate.

For you there was no touch from Levana
when you were born anew to darkness.
The bacio scuro brought you graceless
into a dark place where forbidden her
joyous blessing you are denied succour.
Instead you must learn arts of murder; lest
agonising hunger makes you confess
regrets once more at being a sinner.
You may not recite the Vado Mori.
Deathless you are given little real choice
but to seek out the warmth of humankind.
And this is the irony of your story,
it is only in the warmth of their moist
salt, sweet blood that sustenance you can find.

Breathless demon, exquisite in your hewn
marble perfection. Your face sculptured as
if Michael Angelo's own hand has
carved the cheek, yet he has but left the room
a moment, and you have stepped down too soon
from your pedestal in a way that was
never meant to be. Is it just because
your face is the sort found upon a tomb?
Such beauty could never be of mortal
birth. No artifice of mere womankind
would produce immaculate corruption
that could stop the heart and make Venus pall
into insignificance and still find
strength to ignore vanities ambition.

Yet what is your name sweet harbinger of death?
Do you still retain that which was your whole
being or did you lose it with your soul
at the same time as you gave up your breath?
And did your turning bring you untold wealth?
Or do your countless murders take their toll
on conscience, or is it merely a role
to be played masking unnatural health?
Or do you sometimes shed a bloodied tear?
But the time has come to take the next step.
Questions enough! I see almost daylight.
I searched for the myth but found only fear
and find my self scared to appear inept
as I bare my throat for your lovers bite.

[Herb]

Oooh. Thanks for sharing!

[Emerian Rich]

Great stuff! Featured on Horror Addicts #020 listen here or go to http://www.horroraddicts.net for more info.

[Audrey]

Loving it!