Electra Movie Camera image by Joe Haput CC BY-SA
The August Vampeer: Cantos I-VI
by Cosmic Poet Simon Pole
I
I am the august Vampeer,
In my coffin I appear,
At the finish of the day,
When the sun sinks on its way,
And its rule gives to the moon,
Then it is that lovers swoon,
And the windows leave unlatched,
Hoping for a midnight match:
What they get is me instead,
At the corner of the bed,
Garbed in my demonic duds,
With a lusting for their blood.
II
I’m the hunter of fell beasts,
By my mission many ceased
To prey upon living souls;
Added also to the rolls
Are those collaborators,
With black art, instigators
Of the entry to our realm,
From outside, of those who helm
This depraved conspiracy
To subjugate you and me,
In thrall to their evil will:
So say I, brute-basher Bill.
III
I am the accursed servant,
In cruel crime my time is spent,
Pursuing his foul decrees,
And in that I am guilty,
Obeying what Vampeer said,
While he slumbered like the dead:
In the day, abroad I crept,
Found him victims that were kept
As his slaves, from which he supped.
His gold purse made me corrupt:
Me, Corb Complin, once a lad
Of high faith, now wholly bad.
IV
We are the fallen sisters,
On our skin rise the blisters
Where we have received the kiss
Of the Master, and its bliss,
Which gives to us life in death,
Though we exist without breath,
Or reflections in the mirror,
And the holy cross we fear.
But on this earth we hold sway,
When at the moon wolf-dogs bay,
And all good men are asleep,
Then the tithe of blood we reap.
V
In a town of houses small,
On a cliff where boulders fall,
Was an inn, an evil sort
Where the beer was always short,
And with vermin teemed the bed,
While blind bats accost the head.
But it was the only spot,
For miles around, with a cot
One might rent for an outing
To the mountains, where scouting
Had unearthed the golden seam
That of vast wealth makes men dream.
VI
At the inn, Bill Brasher slept,
While in his dreams children wept,
Neglected brood of the wives,
Who to Vampeer sold their lives;
In the alley, down the street,
They stumbled on bloody feet,
Always searching for the care,
Non-existent in the lairs,
Lightless caves that were the homes,
Corrupted when monsters roamed,
On these acres far away
From where justice lights the day.