I'm a lowly rat
in a vampire movie
Oh, woe is me
who'll bite me first?

Will it be Tom
So cute and curly,

Or pretty Brad
who looks so hurt?

These hunks from Hell
are all around me,

And how their fangs
do make me squeak.

Sweet little Kirsten?
Won't even pet me

She just says 'Yuk'
Though she's very sweet.

Oh, thank you, Larry
Liz Smith, I love you.

And dearest Oprah
How good thou art.

Are there vampires who dwell beneath the waters of the world, and if so, what myth, legends, and folk tales surround them? Are they normal vampires who just prefer water to the land? Are they blood-drinking mermaids? Are there any such vampires in fictional books or movies? To fully answer such questions, a whole book would be required. But let me give some telling examples.

A lost child sits in the lonely box.
Oppressive, cold, and dark
-- It is home.

Every day the same.
Wake before dawn,
Jump into crystalline air.
-- Shower.

No one can see
Her porcelain dress
-- When the lid is down.

A quick brush,
The right blouse
-- Work.

And yet she dances
-- For herself

Be sure to put on a show
-- For others

-- Until the music stops

Minerva
February 20, 2002

In the new blockbuster I Am Legend, virologist Robert Neville (Will Smith) is the sole survivor of a man-made plague that has wiped out all of humankind -- and turned those who didn't die into creepy, vampire-like mutants.

Our traditional image of the vampire, though born from literature, is based on this folkloric vampire, which dates back as early as the eleventh century, and was (until the 1700's) found exclusively in the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe.