Zombie Garden

Whenever I hear this poem in my head, it is always in the voice of Andrei Codrescu.

---

Tomatoes and peppers 
     Planted by moonlight
          Next to the driveway.

An awful place really.
Too open, too visible;
     Requiring incantations to ward off
          Rabbits and neighbors and zombies.

I sprinkle soil, with its rotting 
    Wood chip smell on the pavement;
          A feeble talisman against
               Vegetable thieves.

Once I stake the tomatoes,
     Vampires will be easy quarry.
But what I really need are worms.

Worms so that after the battle  of the rutabagas;
              After the crusade of the cucumbers,
When my tomato flesh pieces fall in this,
                          My loamy mound,
I am composted quickly;
     
Out of the reach of the neighbors
     And rabbits
     And zombies
To feed the next army.

(c) 2012 Norman Dziedzic Jr.