ZOMBIE by Ray O'Bannon

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i am cold. it is the moon time. i hold egg gently and moonlight falls on egg. egg is fragile, must not crust. no, wrong word. not crust. crush. must not crush. i used to have more words, but now i don't. hard to think without all my words. but my mind wants to think anyway, so i try.

sometimes i have remember thinks. from when i was not like this. i can remember think some of who i was sometimes. i look down at bare floorboards and see sparkle. moonlight makes sparkle on little pieces of glass. part of my camera. i still have that word. camera. but farmer broke it. only little pieces now.

i fly with camera on airplane, want to make pictures of island. but man tells me about farmer who makes zombies, and i want to make pictures of zombies. truck takes me to farmhouse and farmer gives me funny whiskey. i sleep and then i wake up in wooden box and it is dark and cold and i am so very afraid. i do not like to have remember thinks about this.

then i hear scraping and the lid of my coffin is being torn off. farmer grabs me and pulls me out of ground. i am happy and have laughing. then farmer starts hitting me and there is pain. he puts me in back of truck with others like me and he takes us back to farmhouse. but he doesn't put us in farmhouse. he puts us in little shack that used to have chickens in it. we sleep on boards of floor when it is moon time and it is cold. it is warmer in the sun time, but there is more pain because of farmer.

when it is sun time, farmer takes us into fields. we pull crop from ground and we want to eat crop because we are very hungry. but farmer makes us put the crop in the baskets and makes us put the baskets in the back of the truck. farmer hits us with things when we don't obey, and farmer likes to hit us with things. sometimes i think we are supposed to die but farmer did something to us so we can't be died anymore.

when sun time is over farmer takes us back to little wooden shack and gives us old crop to eat. old crop is tough and makes my jaws ache. helps my stomach not hurt so much, but still hungry always. sometimes farmer gets drunk and comes to shack to hit us. farmer usually hits us with a club but sometimes he uses a claw. no, wrong word. not claw. knife. he uses a knife.

i gaze at egg in the moonlight and have remember think about sun time. i have remember think about flower. flower is in field and flower is pretty. i stop pulling crop from ground and gaze at flower. then farmer stomps on flower with his foot. and he starts hitting me with things.

when farmer comes into shack to give us old crop, i do not have thinking about food. i have thinking about flower. farmer turns his back to me and raises his arm to hit one of the others like me and i grab his arm with my hands. pulling crops from ground has made my hands very strong. I pull his arm to my teeth. eating old crops has made my jaws very strong and i bite into farmer's arm. he makes a screamy sound and then the others are grabbing him and pulling and tearing him. I grab the top part of farmer, the part with the screamy face, and i tear it off.

the screamy face is ugly so i rip that away, and then i have thinking that i am very hungry so i eat. there is enough that i am no longer hungry. when i am finished i sit in a corner where moonlight shines and i gaze at egg. no, wrong word, not egg. skull.

i am cold but soon the moon time will be over and the sun time will come. it will be warm and i will have laughing.