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