Thursday, October 23, 2008

I just wrote a poem about zombies

I'm thinking of turning it in for workshop next week, but I'm not sure.

Somebody's Always Killing Their Loved Ones

When the zombies come for us,
with their rotten meat stench and paralytic shuffle,
I'm afraid we'll have to break up.
Not because I'll feel less of an attraction to you
or we'll argue about who gets to use the chainsaw,
but because I know that we'll inevitably be locked
in a room together in some abandoned warehouse,
strip mall, or grocery store. And you know how it is
in the movies, when the intrepid survivors find themselves
trapped in a room, doors and windows securely boarded up -
somebody, a mother, a best friend, a lover, is always hiding
the fact that they've been bitten.
I'd rather succumb to the zombie hordes outside and let
myself become a part of the mindless zombie oblivion
than have to kill you. Or, if I'm the one lying about the blood
seeping through the leg of my pants, I wouldn't want
you to shoulder that burden.

Yes, I know that our self-preservation instincts will overcome
our love for one another. You'll trip over something grotesque
and I'll think for a minute of saving you, maybe, but the zombies
will be right behind us. Better you just head north, and I'll make
for the coast. In a few years after this all blows over,
perhaps we'll agree to meet in Poughkeepsie and talk about old times
and laugh about how stupid those zombies were.

16 comments:

kari. said...

i hope you publish a book of all of your poetry and that this is on the first page. <3

Lauren said...

im going to be a zombie grandma for halloween!

josephine terese said...

zombiiiiie love

Chris said...

turn it in. Why would you not?

Mike Jaynes said...

Thanks, everyone. I loves you guys.

Chris- I just worried it was too silly for our workshop, but I think I will because my professor talking about how we should all write poems about movies is what sparked the idea for this poem.

You<3Dru said...

brainsbrainsdrains

Sean! said...

brainsbrainstrains

aaron said...

brainsbrainsgrains (brains)

fuck

Mike Jaynes said...

sean remember that time you threw a beer bottle at me in front of laurie's house because I said that one word three times on accident?


awesome times.

Sean! said...

yeah. and i would do it again. and i'm not saying that i think you're infected- but don't think that i'm not listening to you via my network of anti-zombie swat teams.

one utterance of the death phrase and you will won't even have time to infect the ones you love.

Voodoo Child said...

that was fun. i'm going to send it to greg.

Katie said...

love it.

Katie! said...

omg. so romantic. i loved it. also, i'm going to read middlesex like you said. it WAS in oprah's bookclub after all.

<3

Mike Jaynes said...

wow what? Better not be directed at Katie's comment because Oprah's book club is actually pretty good

Brian said...

wow mike

Sean! said...

wow your mom.