le vampire
adapted from Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire
you broke the lock,
even though I invited you inside;
I think I said “next time, just knock,”
but my hands were already tied
your foothold established,
you began to colonize
each face scanned to a blacklist
my longings reshaped to fit your lies
liquor to my lover,
counterfeit when I’m going straight
carrion to your vulture
you’ll ride my prayers to the golden gates
once upon a time, I’d try to escape
in my mouth or on my body
but changing desperation’s shape
didn’t leave me disembodied
I was too scared of permanence
so the pills and the knives just laughed
“never was cowardice so heaven sent,”
condescending as they drag you onto the raft
I have been bewitched long enough to know
that there are some viruses you can’t clear
and every day since I chose to go,
his voice finds me, how he called me “my dear.”
Monica Deck is an author, recurve archer, and MFA candidate. Her first literary love is poetry, and she lives in the American Midwest with her family and a menagerie of cats.
