Zombie fan art by http://wahkee930.deviantart.com/

CALVIN FANTONE

Gutsongs

When I am undead, my dearest
            will you guide me through this strange, second living?
                        Will you help me relearn motions my muscles have forgotten?

These limbs know only grip and crush and shred.
            This body is not my own.
                        This body is infection’s shuffling marionette,

this jaw knows bite and clench and tear.

Bind my hands in barbed wire, my dearest
            lead me by the shoulders in a slow, steady, two-step
                        with the precision of a memorized prayer.

            Make this body remember
                        what it’s like to be touched.

Dress me in my finest tuxedo, my dearest
            conceal the decaying latticework of vessel and bone
                        because this body is a pallid, dismantled blessing.

            Make it forget
                        it was birthed in blood.

Press me into snow
            and make me leave imprints of angels.

            Let this body pretend to be everything that I wasn’t.

When I am undead, my dearest
            listen for the rumbling in my body’s guts.
                        This is my voice now: reanimated hymns, desire for your flesh.

My dearest, I never sent flowers
            while living, but my body
                        is a bouquet of blossoming wounds.

            My body is hungry and empty,
                        my body is waiting to be filled.

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Calvin Fantone is an idea in infancy, a light bulb in a warehouse brimming with chandeliers. His work has appeared in Writing Without Walls, The Legendary, and elsewhere. He is currently pursuing an MFA at the University of San Francisco. He wants you to bake him some cookies.

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Read Calvin's "Elegy For The Governor By His Zombie Daughter Penny" and "After Being Shot At And Chased By Killer Robots on the 99th Day Of The Machine Apocalypse": from Issue #2 right here.