My Love Victorious: (A Poem)

Author's Note:

This is a poem based on the first out of the three "Underworld" movies. You remember, the one about the vampires (aka "death dealers') versus the Lycans ("werewolves"). The star was Kate Beckinsale. Like the Matrix trilogy, the first Underworld film was good, but as a whole, the three films failed artistically.

In the case of Underworld, this happened because the creators did not recognize, and therefore diluted the first film's core message, the thing that ultimately made it worth watching. The story was properly over with the conclusion of the first film. The creators got greedy, as often happens; they forgot the law of diminishing returns.

The core message of the first Underworld film was, in my opinion, the fulfillment of the love of Lucian, the leader of the Lycan werewolves. Those of you who saw and recall the first Underworld film, will recall that when Lucian implemented his scheme to turn "Michael" into a hybrid werewolf-vampire, he, Lucian, had, in a sense, recovered the child he had conceived with his vampire consort, and lost due to bigotry, having been murdered along with his consort by the leader of the vampires.

Lucian had turned Michael into a hybrid vampire-werewolf, with the strengths of both species and the weaknesses of neither. He had recovered, in a sense, his lost child. Together with Beckingsale's character, Michael killed the leader of the vampires, the one who had murdered Lucian's vampire lover and their child. That was it. The story was over. This was the high point.

Instead, the creators of the project, predictably, got greedy; and, over two more films, the narrative devolved into the typical "US vs. Them" simplistic conflict tale, indistinguishable from thousands of others....

Anyway, let's get started.

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This is my love unknown.

I am Lucian, leader of the Lycans.

That's "werewolves" to you.

That's snarling, moon-howling, fang-bearring

werewolves to you.

That's blood-gorging, demonic, hellhound

beast-dogs to you.

That's unthinking rage-animus on

four furry legs to you.

This is my love twisted.

I am Lucian, bred to be the best of

my kind.

The best of slaves, daytime guardian

of my vampire masters.

I served them gladly, with all my

strength and all my might and all my

will and all my heart and all my soul,

what little soul I had.

It pleased me to be in their favor,

like a treasured pet.

I wagged my tail for them,

like a pampered house-puppy.

This is my love awakened.

I am Lucian, servant in the house

my master.

She neither feared nor loathed me.

She did not condenscend to me.

She was the daughter in the house

of my master.

We fell in love for the reason

any two people fall in love.

Two people. But we romanced in

secret.

A slave cannot be so bold.

And then the slave learned that

he was to become a father.

This is my love shattered.

I am Lucian, Lycan slave, and lover

to a vampire princess.

I am Lucian, father to be.

But of course, slaves have no rights.

Not even the right to love.

Her father, though fond of me, in

that patronizing way, still thought of

me as only the best of a rotten lot.

The best of the garbage, disposable

with all the rest.

My master, using the morning sunrise,

murdered his own daughter and grandchild.

This is my love enraged.

I am Lucian, a Lycan rebel, a

free man.

I am Lucian and I swear

Every last one of you will

die screaming agony.

Because that which you tried to

destroy will destroy you.

That which you rejected will

replace you.

That which you scorned will

bury you.

That which you enslaved will

master you.

This is my love vengeful.

I am Lucian, rebel leader of the

Lycans.

We will have freedom or death.

We will be free or not at all.

We fight for love of freedom and

freedom of love.

I have never forgotten that.

A foe that has no love can be

shown no mercy.

This is my love scheming.

I am Lucian and I have a plan.

We Lycans and Vampires have a

common ancestry of immortals.

Two brothers: one bitten by a bat

and one bitten by a wolf.

There is something in that

I can use...

This is my love: I can taste it!

I am Lucian and I have waited centuries

for this.

This twentieth century is a marvelous age

of scientific wonder.

Of molecular biology and genetics.

I have found him. A modern-day

descendant of the immortal family that

gave rise to Lycans and Vampires.

He is a human named Michael.

He doesn't know it yet, but he is

my son.

My son and hers, my love of long ago.

I bite him and he begins to change.

And then she, a Vampire who reminds

me so much of my lost love of

centuries ago, bites him and he

changes again.

He survives: the union of Lycan and Vampire!

He survives: with the strength of both species

and the weaknesses of neither.

He survives: this is my fulfillment.

He survives...

This is my love victorious.