SMOKIN’ ZOMBIE GIRLS RULE THE STREETS

Thumbing through miles of notes in my fractured and scattered Red Clay Diary, I found this  from a couple of years back. I don’t think anything’s changed, except that I’m more sympathetic toward the Zombies who roam the city streets in clouds of smoke–only doing harm to themselves and passersby and those of us trapped in their nicotine zones.

SMOKIN’ ZOMBIES

My vision is photographic.

Not my memory, just my vision.

I remember small details that seem important at the time.

I don’t remember names, but I can tell you way too much about

the image that sticks in my mind about everybody I meet.

Who knows how this happens? Probably just genetics.

But sometimes, this is fun. Want some examples?

AMAZEMENT # 406

The clerk at the counter seems not there. She looks like she’s

there, but her mind, oh, her mind…her field of vision, oh, her

field of vision…they are definitely somewhere else. She’ll never

remember our moment together.

AMAZEMENT # 407

The singer is my age, his smooth tones have transmogrified into

a galloping vibrato. It makes it more beautiful.

AMAZEMENT # 408

The overlapping-belly green-shirted baseball-capped Bermuda-shorted

guy totes a large K-Mart bag and wanders about the lot, looking for his car.

Maybe he’s still searching.

AMAZEMENT # 409

The Day Glo fluorescent-finger-nail employee at the Salvation Army Thrift

Store has bright blonde hair and deepdark skin and a ready wit. She makes

me smile at nothing in particular.

AMAZEMENT # 410

Two tall hairbraided guys at Family Dollar talk enthusiastically about their

momentary problem: whether there’s enough ice at home or whether they

should buy another bag on the way home. It’s a big deal, their

moment, and don’t you laugh about it, you hear?

AMAZEMENT # 411

A bloated male clerk at the Salvation Army Thrift Store is in charge

of re-arranging the deck chairs and making the place neater. There

is an enormous stuffed mascot bear lying deathlike on the floor.

He brings it to life by placing it into a wheelchair. Now, the animal

is merely handicapped. The clerk kicks at the children’s books

scattered about but doesn’t pick them up.

Bending would be required.

Effort would be required.

AMAZEMENT # 412

The golden-tressed woman with bare midriff looks good

far away. But oh, the close-up: weathered face and flabby

paunch and deep frown report her real life to me.

AMAZEMENT # 413

The smokin’ zombie girls still smoke on break outside

my store, hissing into cellphones, double-inhaling,

chain-lighting-up, happy to be outside in the heat,

away from the smoke-free zombie cubicles inside

the multi-decked office buildings

The Downtown Explorers Club has spent yet one more

day appreciating these puzzling lives.

What have you discovered in the steaming pavements

of Downtown?

Let’s share

(c) 2011 A.D. by Jim Reed

http://www.jimreedbooks.com

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