In dreams of shadow and moonlight they dwell,
There was Palinode and Epistrophe whom would sing
Palinode, he was as Hades, as havoc, as hell,
His lyrics were sharp and bitter, a corrosive thing…
Epistrophe was Desdemona, Persephone, Belle.
Her lays would buzz like the honeybee’s wing.
And upon sharp daggers they occasionally fell.
Upon which time the heart full of grief would swell.
In shadows of dreams and glimmering shards bright.
They took to the skies in the dark of the night...
They flew through the murk as is their domain,
And came to an estate with Duchess and Duke.
They prowled by the windows and sang songs arcane,
And tempted the married couple with lyrics to *****.
And a great fear came over the humans and they swoon.
In ghastly fright together they fell to their knees,
And fell under the spell of that music, that morbid tune,
It was like cold death dancing towards them, they freeze.
And Palinode and Epistrophe entered therein,
And began to feast on their blood, this is their sin.
Palinode said unto Epistrophe, “Hark the cry of the rooster!”
And she to him replied, “I hear only your heartbeat in your chest.”
“Of what do you speak?” He said. “Is this some morale booster?”
“No!” Cried she, “this is only the truth I have laid to rest.”
The wind outside blew like the brewing of a hurricane.
With regards to the Duke and Duchess now dead,
They left their bodies where they fell, in disdain.
And so to their lair in the half light of dawn they speedily fled.
In dreams of shadow and moonlight they go,
Drinking the blood of the innocent and guilty alike,
The vampires Palinode and Epistrophe know,
That death to everything will always strike.
Her hand came up to his face when they awake in the dusk,
His lips to hers and drink in the mouth, so soft that kiss.
Then sweetly sniffing in his fragrance, his musk...
She thought for another life she would never wish.
If anyone would take him from her, she would lament,
But not for a single human life she had taken would she repent.
He had made her this killing machine a monster within.
And she knew she loved him for that and would leave it be.
And so, in dreams of shadow and moonlight she would grin.
And in shadows of dreams and moonlight they see,
That they are together lost in gruesome eternal demise,
Stalking and killing all night until the dawn brings the sunrise.
But Palinode did sometimes wonder when the feast was done,
What waited in their afterlife if they should meet the glare of the sun.
With blood-stained lips and gruesome corpses laid asunder,
He thought that his destiny was hell forever burning,
And so, he tried to weave a different song for her to fall under,
One that would show all his woe and all his yearning.
He sang out the tune and called upon the magical talent.
And into the melody he imbued feelings of remorse, so gallant.
Epistrophe heard him singing while draining her victim’s last drop.
She looked to him through the death and destruction they’d wrought.
But the magic affected her not, she was no puppet, no doll or prop,
She could not be controlled so easily with song or with thought.
“Why do you plague me with sorrow?” Epistrophe cry.
“I want for more.” Came Palinodes’ answer, strong and bold.
“You want more than I can give?” she weeps, “can you not try?”
He speaks. “I have tried and tried again but now I grow old.”
She responds. “You cannot abandon me when you made me what I am.”
And so that song of remorse died there and then in the blood-soaked scene.
“We,” says she, “are hunters and they are the prey, I don’t give a ****!
“to leave this life to me alone is hateful and mean!”
Palinode sighs and finds no release, turning away from her,
“Don’t turn away!” she calls, “look at what we are,”
And so looking about the tavern where they have killed all and none stir,
Palinode sighs again and leans on the bloodied bar.
Epistrophe draws near and goes to comfort her vampire lover,
But as she touches him, she does not feel him as she once knew,
Now he turns to leave and offers these words, “I must go and discover.”
In shock stands Epistrophe she thinks that this cannot be true.
And now in shadows of dreams and moonlight they are separated,
And in dreams of shadow and moonlight Epistrophe has little cares,
She kills heartless still but feels a sour feeling of being unappreciated.
And Palinode travels alone, travels the world going where he dares.
Walking amongst the living in moonlit taciturnity
Trapped in an unnatural life, trapped in eternity.
