Elizabeth Still’s most recent poem to appear here was “If You Believe In Me, I’ll Believe In You” (May 2020).

A Vampire in History
By Elizabeth Still

Joined by their leader
Who signed the decree,
“We shall feast on Will, not Blood.
It read back to history.
Now, centuries past
Sits a new table of vampirelings

Young, feeble, and weak,
It is their time they go out and feast
For the first time upon a human’s Will.
That delectable and delightful nourishment
To feed their scrawny forms

Into the night they descend
To the people in their beds
Fast asleep.

And so, their legion rises
Strength in arms and spirit
Draining the world
Of all its Will.