My lover is a vampire.
Before you laugh I
need you to discover
how he became, firstly
a vampire
and secondly my lover.

He discovered me, alone
walking at sundown
waiting for the day's end.
Truth be told, my end.
I'd planned on lying down
in the long grass of the
sand dunes
fall asleep under the stars
and awake no more.

Summer was at its end
Cool breezes had returned
so when I felt the coldness
at my neck I assumed
It was summer's end
whispering goodbye.
Instead the words I heard were
"You don't want to die"

I thought a sculpture was talking
so cold, so perfect, so smooth
his appearance.
He whispered again
"You don't want to die"
How did he know?
Was this an hallucination?

"Let me show you why you don't want to die"
Immobile I lay as still as a corpse
he touched my head and
images raced through,
of him kissing me, loving me,
through the decades past,
my family, then them dying too.
I felt my tears on my face
thinking of my selfish gene
that suggested me dying.

With a gentle caress he kissed my face
I smelt decay, I recovered and saw
What had saved me from the incoming tide.
A structure of a man
so perfect, so beautiful
I discovered that I wanted him
more than death.

A hunger welled in him and I
He held me, told our story
then goodbye.
My summer lover had to go
the sun had returned
"Take me with you"
Was my plea
But along with the oncoming sea
he swelled my heart
then let it go.
Just like times before.

He kissed me deeply
and promised to return,
sulphur clung to his clothes
invaded my nose and as surely
as I walked to the shore,
He was gone
He was there no more.