I tasted you on my lips today,

tasted the sweet hot blood you

last shared with me as

my eyes closed in the memory,

the dream of you and me.

Fangs plunged deeply into

a fattened vein, full and waiting

to be popped, throbbing desire

calling out for one last kiss.

The wind woke me with cold caresses,

and I immediately inhaled like

the suckling reflex of a new born babe.

I felt the chill settle into my lungs,

a punch to the gut

bringing on the cough of surprise,

elements of whispered moments

in your arms lying on imported silk bunting,

resting in peace while looking gravely

at the others who know life no more,

laid at our feet while we tiptoed over

their last rites and decaying rose petals,

catching tears as they washed over

their loved ones faces,

colored the freshly dug earth in

make up and sweat,

salty dew drops of human frailty long forgotten

along with their memory of us,

still lying together, waiting

for the last of them to leave

with the sinking sun,

so we could rise and take in

the newly arrived occupants,

waving goodbye as we parted

for the night in search of

what no longer ails these

lost souls, going out into

the veil of darkness where they wait

for us to arrive, the answer to

their prayers for deliverance

from their grief, something

to take away their pain,

check the obituary to be

sure we’re in the right place,

add another name to their

family plot, another of their line

mysteriously fallen into the

arms of death, another

in the long line of exes

who thought they’d

seen the last of us

when they blew out our brains

after we caught them

breaking the vows they’d made

in another lifetime.

Too bad reincarnation

doesn’t bring back the memory

so they’d understand why

generation after generation

we must continue to suck them dry.

Hell hath no fury like vampires scorned.