Dear dreams demand devotion,
others commend, forget.
Tonight, I've no emotion;
I cannot feel regret.
I sought you in the darkness,
but found that in the light—
the lightning's sudden starkness—
your corpse was holding tight.
My Death embraced,
by love emaced
this thing I face
allows one grace:
The phantom of the night is gone.
I'm left to wander on.
Was this thing real? A nightmare's con?
No answer comes at dawn.
Emaced: I thought it was a word, but can’t find it in any dictionary. I asked my father, who knows English well, and he said he thought it was a word too. Neither of us can find it anywhere. If it is of my own coinage, it is tied to emaciated. The speaker loved this vampiric phantom that, by feeding on him, emaced him, that is, made him emaciated. There’s probably a better word for that, but not one that rhymes so well.
Tale Told 