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poet: rigor mortis, zombies, & dehumanization

poet: rigor mortis, zombies, & dehumanization

Raina J. León
 

after Night of the Living Dead (1968), 1:34:35, directed by George A. Romero and in response to the rise of zombie films

 

it ends with a bullet to the head
                                           or a sickle              machete               spiked bat
any dead-em will do

                livor mortis                 rigor mortis                  algor mortis
             body cools blood stains the skin fixed in its timelessness
                                           days it takes to blacken
                       first the extending green divines rotting flesh
                                                                  some gods blue & some gods kelp
                                       purple bruise & then black
                                                       that’s real

only movies go                       bite + time = skin slip & black blood spurt

in truth
eyes protrude & challenge tongue
intestines reveal their tangle
push through vagina & rectum

black people have no futures
in sci-fi or horror

white man apocalypse :
whiteness grays & turns black
dark skin lost earth crow black eyes or embalmed roll-white

we always die first in the movies
when death leads to
black behind boards

how dare those zombies crave
beasts
everyone needs a cure

it all ends with a bullet
& a bonfire
zombies aren’t human

drag that out of here

i keep searching my head for holes
practicing, stop. don’t shoot. i’m alive.

 

 

 


Image Credits: Flickr: killaee
 
 
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