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Sestina for a Vampire
by Elizabeth Willse
Sleep holds you captive. Do you even dream?
Your shadowed sanctuary dark and still,
Safeguards its secrets. This silent watch is mine,
Your ageless face so chilly to my touch,
My hand pressed, hopeful, to your silent heart,
Time stretches, lips grow hungry for your kiss.Like silence, knowledge presses: just one kiss
Would bind me to you in your silver dream,
Would chase the shadows from my empty heart.
Time flows for me, though you have held it still
What ghosts have lingered, spellbound by your touch?
What long-dead voices whispered "You are mine?"Nightfall breaks the spell. Your lips find mine
With joy and breathless reverence in your kiss.
My frantic hands igniting all I touch
My lonely doubts, now insubstantial dream
Reunion spent, our twined embrace grows still
Two bodies breathless, but one beating heart.Centuries have cloaked your bloodless heart
You must be deafened by the pulse that pounds in mine
Your hungry moonlit gaze spellbinds me still
You tremble, seeking trespass- just one kiss
I offer solace, drowsy, warm, a dream
You drink deep, and I melt into your touchYour changeless beauty scorns time's reckless touch,
Your voice resounds its music through my heart
There's a mirror in this room, dark as a dream
Your reflection's shadowed absence, next to mine
Your words can't heal this, nor your bloodstained kiss
I can feel your arms around me, stillYou promise changeless, perfect love, but still
I lapse in silence, tremble at your touch
I turn away, though aching for your kiss.
Yet your shadowed voice finds echoes in my heart
The silvered moon is yours, harsh sunlight mine,
You cup your cold hands round the warmth of dreams.Still, I can't surrender to your kiss.
You dream in darkness I can never touch
Held captive, by this beating heart of mine.
© Willse, 2007
Elizabeth Willse’s poetry has appeared in The Rose and Thorn Literary Journal, The
Subway Chronicles, The Verse Marauder, and the Ghazal Page.