The Walking Dead

[rowens]

There's a zombie standing
out on the corner;
he was never a friend of mine,
why is that?

One should only kill one's enemies or friends;
but he's already dead, my friend said.
I guess you're right, I told him,
did you know him?
No, he said.

The next morning the zombie was still there
in the same spot as the day before.
I've never seen a zombie
just standing around like that,
I told my friend on the phone.
Maybe he's depressed,
he said.

Zombies don't kill themselves,
and if they can get depressed,
well, I guess that makes sense
if it's just a normal motor skills problem;
then there's nothing supernatural about it.

These aren't the 'rise from the grave' zombies,
I have to keep telling myself,
the ones brought back by some mysterious force
that would give me a kind of hope.

It's the boring 'virus' zombies
that might as well be a person with rabies
or a mentally retarded person that hasn't eaten in a while.
Yeah, that's the way it seems to me too,
my friend said, can I call you back later,
I'm doing something right now?

All right, I said, and looked out the window
as the Jehovah's Witness couple that nobody would let inside
raised another empty carcass from the dead,
after oxygen had failed to reach the brain for too long.

[ChristopherSea]

I like the comparison of Jehovah Witnesses to the walking dead. I view those Watchtower pamphlets as viral vectors for their disease. My wife turned down their literature by truthfully informing them that she was sight-impaired and they returned with audio discs. I wanted to flail them like Ninja Stars to mow them down.

[rowens]

I find those pamphlets on payphones, there are more pamphlets than payphones. I collect them. Some poems that I write have a surface meaning, then there are the schizophrenic paranoid points of view that I read into what I write. Things that aren't there but are there. Something similar to what I call literal metaphors. I believe in vampires and zombies and fairies and things. That's why so many of my poems are devoid of poetic devices. I'm a true believer. The magic is already there, I'm just adding words to music.

[justcloudy]

Maybe your poetics don't need devices?

[rowens]

Is that some kind of trick question?

Or just a regular one, or a rhetorical one?

I don't like question marks.

[Wulf190]

Really enjoyed that not what I expected when first started reading it. The only line I found kind of out of place was the motor skills one just seemed stiff to me. However ingenious poem. Thanks

[Brownlie]

It seems quite outdated to continue missionary work in the Americas, but good exercise (they ride bikes a lot) and a shower may be a good thing. There's some facetiousness anyhow.

[Bunx]

Yes. This poem made my morning. Liked the comparison of missionaries and zombies as well as the description of said zombies. Witty and clever and flowed quite nicely. All around great job!