15th Raga: For Bela Lugosi - David Meltzer

Sir when you say
Transylvania or wolfbane or
I am Count Dracula,
your eyes widen & for the moment,
become pure white marble.

No wonder you were a junkie.
It's in the smile. Your way of drifting
into Victorian bedrooms
holding up your cape like skirts,
then covering her face as you bent over to kiss & sup.

It is no wonder & it was
in good taste too.

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David Meltzer (b. 1937) is one of the generation of Beat poets that came out of San Francisco in the early 1960s. You can catch up with him here.