Zombifurcation

By Michael Arnzen July 30, 2015Gorelets: Unpleasant Poems

At the Nightsun writing conference in Frostburg, MD, last weekend, I had the privilege of performing a reading of fiction and poetry. Here’s an audio clip from the event, along with the text for one of the pieces I read — the Seussian horror poem, “Zombifurcation” — which appears in the latest issue of The Goreletter.

ZOMBIFURCATION

A zombie crawled right,
a zombie crawled left —
both shared the singular
body I'd cleft.

I'd chopped down his chest,
and cut off his scream —
but still he came at me,
splitting his seam.

He pulled himself toward me
in reanimation:
One arm for each half
toward opposing locations.

A zombie crawled left,
a zombie crawled right —
both sides of my brain
they would eat to unite.

I dropped my machete
and pulled out my gun —
I had to be ready
to shoot either one.

And he got awfully near me
on the floor of the crypt,
but then lost all his traction
when his torso was ripped.

A zombie crawled here,
a zombie crawled there —
without one another
they just clutched at the air.

I could have just left then —
let yang to chase yin —
but I wasted two bullets
on the Siamese twins.