Teenage Vampire

how can you know the distance run
between the longing and the sun…
 
when I was just a little boy
they caught me with a rat,
about to sink my fangs in it.
 
the sun slanting between
the houses on that row
to where I crouched beside the hose and bikes
and contemplated blood.
 
they called me mad  
and locked me up
and gave out pills  
like sweets on Christmas morn.
 
they tried to unlock a room in my skull
that would contain the answers to my self.
 
abandoned at just four years old,
perhaps some strange impulse remained
to indicate trauma.
 
but all I think is blood,
and teeth, and grow pale at dusk,
so that you all see me drawn out
and enervated thus  
that no-one would suspect my teeth
were those that marked the cyclist,
delivering pizzas at night...