Blade, Unplugged

V14

Tim Seibles 2012

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


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.


that’s so many lives ago.
I believe


    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:


  I think of that one note   
   that breaks what’s left
  of what’s human in me,
                                 man,









I love    everything