Chronically Untouched

I killed it.  Or so I thought.

Scooped out

shovels full of dirt,

to carve a deep, dark space.

I buried it.

I moved on then,

free of shadows, radiant-

with just a tinge

of the graveyard grays.

I listened,

sought confidences -

reserved judgments.

They loved to talk,

to share momentous miscellany -

I listened.

But with listening came

a peculiar conceit,

of being anointed,

of being blessed

with lifetimes lived

in a single, vicarious 

vampire breath.

That radiance is now tainted.

The shadows have risen

from the deep, dark pit

where need

could never slumber.