(15) - Meeting Of The Dead Poem by James Grengs

I am aware.
A new power
-Hers-
Greater than mine.
Also, pride.
She thinks me ignorant.
Ungrateful, foolish woman!
I have changed her.
I am her power.
She cannot escape me.

I call her.
I am her father;
She cannot resist my cry.

We meet in a filthy apartment,
A dunghole, whose occupant
I have enjoyed.
He is dry; he will not need the room.

She is beautiful, as I have said.
But tonight, that hunger is not in me.
I am angry with the anger of the Changed.
-Like a mad dog,
With no control over my actions.-

From the Living,
The Changed need only fear
A small variety of charms:
Fire, the Cross, the wooden stake.
But from brethren,
The Changed need fear
Much.

She would fear me, in my anger,
If she were wise.
I cannot sense fear in her:
Fool.

We speak. I know
She can hear my anger
-I do not hide it.-
Yet she still shows me no fear:
Fool.

She asks a question:
“Father, can I feel? ”

“No. We are incapable of feelings.”

-She sounds young, innocent:
So she is.
She also sounds
Foolish.-

“Father, can I remember? ”

“No. We are incapable of memory.”

-I know she remembers,
I know she feels.
I have sensed this myself.
But if she realized her own power,
I would not last.-

“Father, are we the same? ”

“Yes. There is no difference-
We are both bound by the hunger.”

Suddenly, I sense a flare of anger.
His anger.
-Nemesis-
Then it is gone, and I sense it no more.


Suddenly, her tone changes.
She becomes more intense.
“Did you meet with Nemesis? ”

-Did she sense him as well? -

“Yes, I did. He saw my strength,
Grew afraid, and fled into the night.”

“Oh.” Her voice gives a hint of some emotion;
I could not identify it.
Confusion,
Another experience alien to me,
Shows on her face.
“Will you not change him? ”

-Change him?
What being would change
His only real challenge? -
Aloud, I say,
“No, I will not. You will.
You must change him.”

She nods resolutely:
Her darker being has won.
-We stand in the dark.-