Blade, Unplugged

It’s true: I almost never

smile, but that doesn’t mean

I’m not in love: my heart

is that black violin

played slowly. You know that

moment late in the solo

when the voice

is so pure you feel

the blood in it: the wound

between rage

and complete surrender. That’s

where I’m smiling. You just

can’t see it—the sound

bleeding perfectly

inside me. The first time

I killed a vampire I was

sad: I mean

we were almost

family.

But that’s

so many lives

ago. I believe

in the cry that cuts

into the melody, the strings

calling back the forgotten world.

When I think of the madness

that has made me and the midnight

I walk inside—all day long:

when I think of that

one note that breaks

what’s left of what’s

human in me, man,

I love everything

Copyright Credit: Tim Seibles, "Blade, Unplugged" from Fast Animal. Copyright © 2012 by Tim Seibles. Reprinted by permission of Etruscan Press.