Know Your Rights

Those who have seen their Buffy will know
That while the undead don’t obey every minor legal resolution
(Least of all the U.S. Constitution)
They do have, of their own,
A certain set of rules.
  So don't get fooled.
If a vampire comes to your door,
No matter how much he implores,

        He cannot enter without invitation
(Which is not to say he won’t get one from you
By dishonest information--
He may
Misrepresent his vampiric nature --
for one, or forget to tell you which
Agency he represents
Or by specious intimation -- for that matter--
To the effect of, “You have to come with me now”
 Or -- you have got to
    Let me and my team intrude.
  When actually -- you don’t – no law
Of God or man
Compels you to be someone’s food)

The other certainty is that he’ll come
In the dead of night or in the
Small hours of the morning
  So that you are blear-eyed blinking
When he tells you to take what things you need
-- before you can start thinking

  Since thought leads swiftly to awareness of the fact
      That you won't be coming back.

Vampires, to their credit, tend to avoid
Schools
And hospitals (this one's not so binding though, more of--
An internal policy guideline)
As if--

Even they would find that a kind of
  Disgrace
Which is nice, and all, except one has to ask --
  What is the polite and proper place
To spirit someone away to their death?

Those in want of a poetical analogy
To serve as a shorthand for these rules of the revenants
  (perhaps to be employed against them with
    bitterly satirical intent)
Can, at the risk of being taken by those who are vampires and vultures themselves
     For making a kind of endorsement
  Do no better than refer to the recent practices of
U.S. immigration enforcement.