It’s not easy to follow a new diet–

to rein in the roiling desire 

that forever urges me to bare my fangs

and take just one more bite 

into the flesh of the helpless human in my grip,

to take just one more sip 

from the still pulsating veins,

which tease my eyes and seduce my lips.

How my barely quenched throat burns

when the flow of warm blood abruptly stops,

creating an inner void that screams for more,

to which a lesser being would surely yield.  

It’s not easy to shackle myself to the new diet–

with its rigid rules regarding abstention–

after centuries of having sated my thirst

and quelled my carnal yearnings with abandon,

but this new practice is not born out of

some misguided need for praises in

pursuit of some superficial beauty–

a plague that haunts the vain humanity.

Rather, it is a necessity for my survival

with more and more humans dying these days,

slain by their own kind in an endless war for resources

or for some faceless gods that have long forsaken them. 

It’s not easy to control my temper and ration

my daily intake of sustenance,

where I force myself to take enough

for subsistence, no longer for indulgence,

trying to keep my stock alive and fresh

for as long as possible, but it’s not always viable–

my final captive’s almost dead, and I’ll have to make sure

its head and heart are crushed, so it won’t turn out like me.

Food is scarce enough these days, so I’ve no patience

for competition with more of my brood roaming about

and starting conflicts where even the most rational

become rabid beasts to fill their growling stomachs.

It’s not easy to get used to this new diet,

but there’s no other choice to be made;

how I miss the good old days

when food was abundant and easy to find;

now, what little is found in this wasteland may not be fresh,

either rotten and infested with maggots or

withering away from the radiation polluting their veins,

which gives their blood a sickening aftertaste.

The last of my current stock will expire soon,

so I’ll drain all that’s left and feed it to the wolves     

before making a grocery run to the nearest settlement

to procure more livestock before daylight strikes.