NaPoWrimo 2019 Early Bird

Well, it is almost the start of National Poetry Writing Month -- NaPoWriMo -- in which we write a poem per day for the entire month of April.  An optional prompt is given each day, plus there is an Early Bird Prompt, given on March 31st.  Today's prompt is to write a poetic self portait, in which we portray ourselves in the guise of a figure from history or mythology.  Here is what I came up with.

Portrait of Myself as Vlad the Impaler

After a few hundred years

I grew weary of being remembered

for my cruelty and bloodlust

even though I brought it

upon myself

by impaling my enemies on stakes

on the grounds of my castle,

often taking meals while sitting

in the midst of their squirming,

screaming bodies as they died,

nailing turbans to the heads

of visiting Ottomans when they didn't show

the proper respect,

and performing countless

other acts of malice.

At the time it brought me

orgasmic ecstasy,

and my legend grew

feeding on fear and veneration,

like the Old Testament God.

But these things faded

over centuries.  I was dead

but my hell consisted of memories,

of reliving the horrors 

I had perpetrated

so that I felt some relief

when Mr. Stoker wrote his novel,

transforming me into a supernatural

creature of the night,

living on the blood of victims

because I had no choice.

Such a hell was comparable

to the one I was experiencing,

almost.

But further years softened me

in the minds of millions,

transforming me first into 

an eccentric but lovable

grandfather, a patriarch

to a family of friendly monsters,

and then into a mascot

promoting chocolate flavored cereal

on Saturday mornings,

and finally into a benign,

almost avuncular eccentric

with a passion for numbers 

and a quirky laugh,

whose main vocation in life

was teaching children to count. - Jeff Barnes