“You’ll understand when you’re older,”

Is what the vampires say.

“Once you become one of us you’ll know

why we prefer night to day.”

“She’ll grow out of it,”

Is what the vampires say,

“She’s over-emotional now,

But that will soon fade away.”

“You won’t like the taste,”

Is what the vampires say

“It may disgust you now, but

You’ll die for it someday.”

I don’t want to become a vampire,

don’t want to loose what’s mine

Don’t want to stop feeling and hoping and dreaming—

“It’s only a matter of time.”

“You shouldn’t trust so easily,”

The vampires say with a laugh

“You had better rely only on me,

Or you’ll face the wide world’s wrath.”

“It’s better to be a vampire,”

One vampire confides,

“Beautiful, powerful, strong—

Just a little bit dead inside.”

They say things I do not understand

They laugh at what I cannot know

They tell me I’ll be someone different

Caught in time’s quick flow

“You’ll understand when you’re older,”

Is what the vampires say.

I don’t want to understand

But it seems there’s no other way.

Still no matter how they tease

that it’s a game I’m too old to play

I’ll stand, though the sun may burn my skin,

And relish the warmth of day.

…

“You don’t have to be a vampire,”

I heard an elven voice say.

“There are other sorts of immortals

Who watch time pass on its way.”

“Innocence is not ignorance

The childlike need not be childish

That you feel so much is a gift

To the flourishing of the world.”

“You’ll learn as you grow older,”

Is what the elven say,

“To cherish every new miracle,

And to heal your heart each day.”

“You’ll see so much beauty,”

Is what the elven laugh,

“Of ferns and fens and music played

By springs that dance and splash!”

“You have so much to give,”

The elven reassure,

“There’s a simple joy in selflessness,

The darkness is desperate to obscure.”

Thus I escaped with the elven

Down paths of dew-dropped moss

The vampires sneered at me

But that was no great loss.

I understood when I was older

What then I saw but could not see

That really, a vampire is the easy thing to be

But to tread the elven path is a hard-won victory.

-Millie Florence