When I was a kid
my mother would stand
in the dark beside my bed
while I slept

like a vampire
in a night gown
with long blond hair
and porcelain skin

and each time I woke up
she'd scare the piss out of me
so I'd pull the covers up
over my head and scream

(because
 it seemed like
 she was about to
 consume me)

but not one drop of blood
was ever spilled, because
she was only there
to protect it. 

Charles Joseph lives and writes in Montclair, NJ. He is the author of four poetry chapbooks that people seem to really like, and No Outlet (a novel) that he’s currently shopping to agents. His new chapbook Fireball (12 quasi-epic poems of cheerful doom and gloom) is available at wwww.indigentpress.com. One day Charles hopes to own a farm and raise chickens. 

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