The Halloween Zombie! Poem by Denis Martindale

I ran down one street, hoping to escape them,
But he was waiting ahead, for me, eyes staring,
Shoulder slumped on one side, hand dangling,
Knowing the others were forcing me towards him,
I kept running forward, my eyes scanning,
For some kind of weapon before I faced him,
Then I noticed a dustbin and scrambled there,
To use the dustbin lid as a makeshift shield,
I rummaged through the rubbish there was,
Found a few extras I could use, given time...

He didn't even move, just looking, biding his time,
Following a set plan that had worked before,
But maybe not this time, maybe not with me...
The others had blocked the other end of the street,
Now moving forward, closing the gap between us,
No turning back that way, too many of them,
But he was my way out, unless there were others,
No point thinking too long at this point, though...

So I charged directly at him and still he didn't move,
But at the last moment he blocked me to the left,
I immediately twisted around sideways half circle,
Smashed his face with the dustbin lid, blinding him,
Now unable to see what I was doing, I attacked,
Grabbed his feet, forced him down to the ground,
Wrapped the string I'd found round his ankles...

Only then could I look around and assess the rest,
I had about a minute ahead of them and I ran,
I ran like crazy down the street, climbed fences,
Then I hid myself in one of the gardens, terrified,
Breathing heavily, hoping to calm down again,
I didn't even raise my head to see if they were near,
Just lay there shivering in the bitter cold twilight,
Knowing I'd be starving soon, yet no hope of food,
Only then did I understand how hungry zombies are...
And that now they'd do anything... just like me...


Denis Martindale, October the 31st
in the Year of Our Lord 2013.