Civilized Zombies

I will give you a little bit of context for this poem. I am describing my time walking through this place:

It is a Korean marketplace, filled with everything from fresh produce, heavenly pastries, and live aquatic life. Hope you enjoy this!

As soon as my mother’s eyes look away, I reach for my freedom,

It comes in a rusty cart, with 3 working wheels, and some coupons tacked on,

Yet I could not have wished for a better steed

Despite its modest speed, its company is all I need to succeed

As I propel myself into the sliding glass doors before me

Gripping the handlebars, my 12 inch legs make quick flutter kicks, and the tires follow my lead,

They awake from their slumber, and squeak angrily,

Yet despite their stubbornness, I avoid the stampede,

Of hands and fingers that reach for,

What has been grown on God’s green Earth

Customers hold their spoils in plastic bags,

They plop them on bouncing bowls to determine who stays and who goes,

Here in this mart, you can’t tell friend from foe,

Killer deals become reality, if you accidentally steal their tomato

Because I guess $.29 for bananas is enough to make a fuss,

While $2 for almonds can make people go nuts,

All produce lies dormant, surely a degradation of God’s creation

They refuse my efforts to help them escape, they lie waiting to be taken,

Even if I was a Jedi I couldn’t help them…no force would help them awaken

Yet as I push my cart forward, it is in a watery graveyard that I find life,

Price markers are tombstones, telling how much I need to pay per pound to satisfy my appetite  

Though I can choose what carcass I want to buy

The deceased don’t have a say in how they are presented,

Apparently their requests for cremation are lost in translation,

Bodies are heaped on top of each other like a sundae, ice-cream formation,

In death there is no separation by race, creed, or nation, as the mollusks are lumped with the crustaceans,

And slippery eels lie lifeless next to red snappers and octopi,

Lobsters foam at the mouth and blue crabs wonder what time they are to die,

The lucky flounders protect themselves in crowded tanks,

But they are no match for the butcher’s hands,

Giant claws that scoops their struggling bodies out,

As stainless knives slam down on scaly necks,

While their friends watch in horror, not wanting to be next,

And as my heart tears at this sanguine killing spree,

A scream rips through exclaiming “Sushi! Buy one get one free!”

And with that, my sympathy immediately leaves me

After feasting on the corpses of the dead, I stand in line with fellow competitors,

Though I do not understand them, they were sojourners with me in this adventure,

Because even as they speak in different characters,

We all ended up at the same register