OBITUARY

In memoriam,   Christopher Lee


Last week I dreamt of death's dark void
in a nightmare scene of wooded mountains
and Gothic castles on moonless, starless midnights.
In trepidation I traversed narrow passes over bottomless ravines
that seemed to mean so profoundly much.

And on waking prepared to face the division
of myth and man and mourn the latter,
whose commanding presence conjures up
vivid images of black coaches, shrieking bats and baying wolves
that without him would surely revert to mere folklore.

Next day your face was full of farewells.
Then as the Veil parted and you stepped through,
oh how I longed to follow - a more than willing victim,
bare-necked and spread-eagled beneath the full moon
with not a Crucifix in sight. But you never came.

Will the great Hammer now become meaningless logo:
a quaint hieroglyph of antiquated long-forgotten legend?
But before it fades to nothingness,
please, please teach me the language of the Vampires, that I might
occasionally call you back and so dispel dejection's heavy shroud...

Peripheral vision registers something blackest black
and cloaked lurking in the room's darkest alcove.
"I've come to say goodbye" the wind outside murmurs.
Oh my shape-shifting friend, what are you really?
Whether man, actor, or diabolic fiend I am no longer sure.

And will mere tomb contain such a creature
who has ventured so far into the abyss:
whose very name evokes images of blood,
sharp fangs and literal hell on earth?
Perhaps the Angels, too, are confused (you were incredibly convincing)

so will keep you at bay, suspended for all eternity
between Otherworld and Earth in some ghastly half-life
where Dracula presides over his archetypal realm:
where your origins and my future converge
in cold stone and ornately carved letters

that never were, yet ever shall remain
in memory's poignant domain - and in my Soul.
Oh what an obituary! It hurts my eyes to read
such misunderstanding. Your passing makes me say
something entirely different:

I shall not mourn, I shall not weep
nor bid you "rest in peace".
Oh Master of Horror, I shall not miss you -
why on earth would I, 
when you and I both know
an Undead cannot die...