Vogue Zombies

She never ate me
wasn't visibly rotting
but other than that

was quite zombie-like.
Although she would sometimes talk.
If we interpret

torn skin, eating flesh
as Hollywood metaphors
then zombies do walk.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .



Behind-the-scenes stuff:

I noticed—just this morning—that in April
I had one post with the word “zombie” in the title
[The Sun Also Rises And Gets Eaten By Zombies] '
and in May I had two posts with the word “zombie”
in the title [Zombies Are Not The New Vampires
and also Zombie Flowers] but in June
I had no posts with the word “zombie” in the title.

If I hadn’t noticed it I wouldn’t have cared at all
but once I noticed it almost immediately
my brain decided all by itself that I needed to do
a zombie post for today the last day of the quarter
and get in a title that has the word “zombie” in it.

I had no particular plans for what to write today
so my brain—again mostly by itself—just went off
and I believe, consciously looking back after the writing,
built today’s post by touching on three posts
from earlier this quarter.

First of all, this quarter I did a lot of cartoons
I like, but one of my favorites is “In Vogue,”
a watercolor rendering of Kate Moss. So I had Vogue
and beauty stuff on my mind. (And the desire
to do more watercolors next quarter.)

Second, one of my favorite posts from this quarter is
“Beautiful Music.” It’s been on my mind a lot
because it is, I think, very nice but
in real life I’m not really a nice guy
although I wish I was nicer than I am.
I wish almost more than anything
I was nice enough to live up to
that post in real life. But I couldn’t.

Third, once I started wishing I was nice
that reminded me of my post
“Saying Mean Things”
and that brought together
all the elements for today’s poem.

Thinking of certain women I’ve known.
Thinking of a mean post to counter-balance
that nice post (because I get angry at myself
for not being able to live up to that nice post
in real life). And the Dylan thing about being mean
but trying to be mean constructively, being mean
in a way that at least might make some readers smile.

And I believe that’s how I wrote Vogue Zombies.