Ashes to Ashes

My mama said to get things done,
you'd better not mess with Major Tom!
- Ashes to Ashes, David Bowie

Dealing with addiction:
when one gets close to the goal—
a well-stocked bar, an all-you-can-eat buffet,
a naked human being, regardless of sex, a syringe full of heroin,
lines of cocaine, a video of people having sex, regardless of the age,
you get an idea
of what it means to enter Dracula’s castle, your face screaming with
terror and delight the rest of your life wanting more and more
and if you're lucky, you die. ..

Established that victims consciously detest being dominated by vampirism but are unable to relinquish the practice, similar to addiction to drugs.
Ultimately, death results from loss of blood. But, unlike normal death, no peace manifests itself for they enter into the fearful state of the undead.
- Abraham Van Helsing, "Horror of Dracula" (1958)

Originally from Bandung, Indonesia, Jean Jones received a BA in English in 1986 from UNC-Wilmington, and an MFA in Creative Writing: Poetry in 1988 from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Jean currently teaches English as a Second Language Part Time in Continuing Education at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Find more by Jean Jones in the Author Index.

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