Undying

(Besides participating in the 2013 Blogging A to Z April Challenge, I'm also participating in National Poetry Writing Month. In NaPoWriMo, I'm supposed to write a poem a day for the whole month. Yes, I'm crazy. Here's the fifth poem.)

Undying

You cannot know
the things I have seen
the loves I have lost

Empires have fallen
kings become dust
Nothing remains

Should I tell you of
Alannah, auburn hair
and pale sweet body?

Or of fiery Elizabeth
who rode white horses
across the verdant moors?

A hundred or so Janes,
A multitude of Marys –
and even a few Siennas.

I loved them all
from youth to elder
I watched them die

Love didn’t protect
them from diseases,
wars, or old age.

A few learned my secret
They begged me to give
them the blood sacred.

I told them I could not;
humans were meant
to burn bright then die

Some understood
some fled in fear
some tried to slay me

Still I continue on
four thousand years
and a score more

Searching for anything
-- anything at all --
worth dying for

Love me while you live
and I will love you eons
after you are dead

April 2013

(Copyright 2013 by Stephen B. Bagley. All rights reserved. No copying without prior permission. Thank you for reading.)