The Painted Viper Cries
--- Albert L. Evans
I.
I remember my first kill.
Were you there, in a form?
I've always felt as if someone were watching.
I hated you for not helping me.
The blood... the blood was all around me
it sprayed into my hair.
A thousand years passed
and still the red stains my hair.
II.
He never told me, you see,
when he took me to bed.
And when he bit me
(yes, it was on the neck, just like Dracula)
I cried out.
He said I would live forever.
But to live is to kill.
You can resist, sure. But the pain...
Eventually it takes control.
It's easier to submit,
make it clean.
Eventually we gathered together
his past lovers.
We killed him as only a vampire can
and swore on his corpse
never to visit our fate on another.
III.
A vampire lives forever. It's a curse.
Even vampires fall in love.
My blood burns when I lie with you.
My mind controls the urge,
an instinct
to kill you.
My body wants your blood;
I need your heart.
IV.
The men begin to blur,
faces melting into one, one man.
I've loved you for a thousand years.
I even loved you when you bit me,
and later, when I killed you.
I've watched you die a hundred times.
Once you called me a painted viper
and I didn't understand.
You'd seen me, blood running from my lips;
I would have spared you that,
but you pry so hard sometimes...
You question the news and wonder.
Everywhere we go, people disappear.
Painted, hiding the truth.
I never bit you.
V.
You're old.
Lines on your face
cut my eyes.
You never understand when I tell you.
Go away, I said. Stupid bastard
Vampires live forever!
You didn't know I'd have to watch you die
when you decided to stay.
And I couldn't send you away, you see
because I love you.
I knew.
Damn you, I knew.
Bert Evans is an Information Systems/Computer Science/Creative Writing Major at Carnegie Mellon who likes to write about anything and everything in any format. A football player for the Tartans (please don't ask him about "diskette day") he likes to do just about everything. He loves to write and receive mail.
ae0i+@andrew.cmu.edu