vampires cry blood

each poet
is required
before the time
of their
death
to stay up and
write
a vampire
novel. Even

though the
light doth

Kill them.
Day light
kills
vampires.
As you know.

It will be
a short novel.

I desired
to burn
like Joan
of Arc
being
woman man
saintly
and the
flames
made me
be something
magnific
ent. And

What was
the story?
A novel
requires
a hall
a corridor
a prismatic
corridor
human bodies
are coming
down
while being
alive
which we
the dead
watch. The candle
the human
lights
is a tiny
bell to the vampire
he comes
one night
and puts
his cold
hand
in my
mouth
and demands
that I
stop
changing so
he can
get his
story out.
A dog pushes
against
the thing
in which
I emboss
the book
glinting
and the ancient
word ‘boss’
a strange
globe
from which
spin forth
the armaments
of the vam
pires
pain
his long life
his very
long life
warrior
once
housewife
next
pad on a dog’s
foot, sore
another
time
maritime
always getting
licked. The
dog putting
her damp
paw onto the ground
in the
night
before the
day in
which the vampire
was born
I mean
he died.
I have
failed
in my task
of writing
my vampire
novel. I will
never try
again
but in the time
of a global
pandemic
rules
have changed
no more
essay portion
of SATs

no more
this
no more
this
no more
this