Zeitgeist Zombies
a dual vocab word and a ZukoKnox joint.
Author’s Note: What a treat it was to join DuVay Knox, who writes
, in composting (!) this pass-around prose poem. Or is it a Beat rant? An angry freestyle? Flash nonfiction? Whatever it is, it was a wild wonderful ride, and I hope you enjoy it. And, you know, may the zombies never win.ZEITGEIST ZOMBIES
A Collaborative Rant About Fear, Paranoia, Trepidation, Mental Instability & Drugs in America
Like I said before, I had just got thru watching that WILL SMITH movie where dem White ZOMBIES chasing him, rite?? I caint think of da name of it rite now. Butt he like da LAST NIGGA ON EARTH in da joint. He was a scientist?? Fuckin wit dem VIRUSES. Anyway, I had just watched da flick after I had rolled me da biggest JOINT in RILLO papers/so now I had da munchies BAD AF. Butt I aint wanna go to the store cuz it was COLD AH. Im tombout dat shit was in CELSIUS. And U kno its COLD as-a-Muthafucka when its CELSIUS, too!! Butt I aint have no mo dem LIL DEBBIE FROSTED DONUTS I like. U kno da kind dat after u eat em look like U been eating COCAINE?? Well, DEM. So I went head n strapped up wit 2 COATS/had sum LONG JOHNS on underneath sum shit I aint wore since 5th Grade when I had PNEUMONIA and Mah BIG MAMA made me putt dem shits on to stay warm--and sum VICKS VAPOR RUB. Well, I had dem muthafuckaz on AGAIN. Cuz this COLD wasnt no joke dat nite. Few minutes later im out da door/git up to A-RAB store where they da only place sell dem LIL DONUTS, rite. And outta nowhere here cum all da ZOMBIES. Im tombout these are real ZOMBIE MUTHAFUCKAZ hooked on this new shit they got on the streets that got FENTANYL in it so they HIT dat shit n ZONE OUT like they in a TRANCE--butt they kan still FUNCTION doe....butt Walking JUST like ZOMBIES. Mane, lookit heah, dem Muthafuckaz saw me and came from EVERY WHERE wit they HAND OUT/BEGGING n shit. It looked like one dem scenes in dem RELIGIOUS movies where all da LEPERS n SICK peeple be reaching out for him to HEAL em n shit. U knowhatimtombout??
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I Am Legend? Is that the one? I see those types of zombies huddled in clumps and clusters on medians and under overpasses all over where i live, too. Muttering to themselves, hunched over so low right at the double turn to the highway, that even if I wanted to offer them something (which I don't), they wouldn’t be able to see, their head is pointed down so low to the fake molded bricks where they swaying stand. Vibrating, chattering. It’s hard to feel compassion when it’s a zombie. But I try. Himself commiserated with lepers, but I dunno. The public library in my old hometown got completely shut down for months because of the meth fumes found throughout the air circulators. Talk about an airborne virus.
Ever hear the cautionary tales of online sage Latinos Against Spooky Shit? He always prescribed El Vicks to guard against the malicious monsters that so many people encounter and send in to him, as part of the magic that keeps one safe. Maybe you should have added the Vicks to your long johns that night—it sounds like it’s a balm that keeps away the bad things; maybe it works against zombies, too.
But I dunno, again—I saw recently that They (whoever They are) found a ‘Mysterious “Skin-Like” Golden Orb’ on the ocean floor, near Alaska. Did They leave it tf alone? Of course not: they got a robot arm to ‘tickle’ it—no, seriously, that’s what the Guardian article I read said they did—they fucking TICKLED it! I mean, what did they expect was going to happen? A gold egg that has a hole in it, at the very bottom of the abyss, and they tickle it? What exactly did they scare out? Or in? Of course They didn’t leave it there, either—they brought it out and found it was more yellow than gold and that whatever was inside wasn’t inside anymore. Like the hollow skull of a zombie who moans it wants BRAINS but really doesn’t, not really, because that would be too painful, that would be too hard.
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I knew U would know, ZUKO. Cuz U stay up on alla thangs. Thats 1 of da THANGS I like bout U. U be knowing WHAT frum WHAT. Shitttt, I would putt MONEY on U ANY DAY to Fuck wit JEOPARDY and WIN alla dat Shit. U be like: GIMME THANGS DONT NO OTHER BITCH KNOW, ALEX!!
Butt, Yeah, I AM LEGEND. Dats dat WILL SMITH movie I was trya remember. And U A LEGEND for remembering dat FLICK. Caint even say I actually LIKED da MOVIE fo real. Who knew WILL would go on to WIN an ACADEMY AWARD For SLAPPIN da VIRUS outta CHRIS ROCK MOUF in BROAD DAYLITE on NATIONAL TV??!! PLEASE TELL ME U SAW DAT SHIT!! U know for a FACT dat dat NIGGA WILL hadda Be ON sumpen to do sum NO MANNERS, BANANAS shit like dat.
And U alretty kno Im Hip to EL VICKS. That was a BADD LOW-RIDING/SICARIO Muthafucka. They never could stop HIM frum IMMIGRATING into PEEPS SOUL whose TIME had cum to CROSS OVER The BORDER into NEVERLAND.
Shit is SAD doe. Is this da world we livin in now?? Where Muthafuckaz so Fucked up off BIG PHARMA shit they aint got No HOME TRAINING no mo?? They done lost all hope for ever being real peeps ever again in LIFE?? And U know its THE MEDIKAL INDUSTRIAL KOMPLEX behind this bullshit rite!! U kan call me one of dem CONSPIRACY THEORIST Niggaz all U want. Butt GAME RECOGNIZE GAME!!
Im seeing peeps who useta be CAPABLE n ABLE Muthafuckaz alla sudden strung out like dat shawt, ANTHONY FAUCISTEIN Nigga wants em to be. How DRUGS dat only Muthafuckaz who were INSANE in da MEMBRANES n LOCKED UP in SWEDEN sumwhere where they be EXPERIMENTING on Yo ass wind up on da STREETS near erry QUIK-TRIP in a Nigga VEINS in AMERIKKKA? HUH?? Im just saying?? I aint KRAZY, Zuko. I mite Be NULL & VOID. Butt I aint KRAZY. And this shit is MESSING wit mah ability to be an AFFECTIVE NON-TAX PAYING CITIZEN. Feelme??
Im tombout its FOOLS on mah J.O.B. be amped on dis shit butt tryna HIDE it like they aint ON da shit. Listening to ROB ZOMBIE n shit. Dat aint No Muthafucking COINCIDINK!! Nigga I useta know who was just a Regular NEGRO started Listening to THRILLER n recommending VINCENT PRICE movies outta nowhere!! U kno Y?? Cuz he was on dat SHIT?? Tombout it was HIS MEDISIN. I said: MEDISIN HEALS U, NIGGA. DRUGS KILL YOU!! He aint kno da DIFFERENCE. And I felt SORRY fo dat FOO/cumming to werk on sum TRANCE shit fuckin up da food in da Shared Employee Refrigerator. Im gitting tired of not being able to find mah BALONEY SAMMICHES!!
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I need to print out that first paragraph and tape it to my fucking mirror so I can be pep talked each morning, ngl. My blushes, sir.
Dude, I have to tell you—I don’t know what to think about the Smith/Rock Slap Incident. Most of what I saw and then read as commentary made me back away slowly, as most of the people that were weighing in were making very clear this was a thing about Black culture and honor, and …so what am I supposed to say, myself, a moderately queer chick with skin that literally glows in the moon? Having said that,
As a professional fake fighting expert (and an erstwhile ninja who knows real fights too), when that slap first happened i was asked by more than a few people if I thought it was fake or not. Peeps couldn’t believe that something like that would: a) happen on a major awards show, or; b) be filmed, recorded, and included in the broadcast. So.
I looked at it. I dunno, it sure looked fake but ehhhh I didn’t pursue it. Not my place to say anything. At least that’s the impression I got. And Will Smith is a great actor. But then, I’m not one for conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories are an easy way out of thinking. Right? I feel you, my friend, but do you feel that? Conspiracies are so much more comforting than what the reality really is: experts telling us what they know is up, sometimes being wrong, but always with their fingers on the pulse of the world. Sloppy groups of people just trying to get though as best they can. Loving and hating and fucking things up. We’ve stopped listening to the experts, though, we’ve lost the ability to recognize a real expert over a charlatan, too, we can’t figure it out on our own. But we’ve stopped trusting any data, cheaters have gotten bold, liars have undone their masks, so few people care about it, and the world is about to get an aneurysm because of it.
It’s what I said about the zombies last time. Isn’t it so so much more comforting to believe that ‘they’ are all against us, than it is to really research, critically think about it? Because once a man is that scared, that disappointed in himself, those vultures—those predators like the Andrew Tates and the Piss Boys and the Jordan Petersens and the bad bad men swoop in. Oh, no, they say. You’re not a failure. You haven’t fucked up yr life, no—that’s THOSE GUYS’ fault. That’s those creepy gays or those entitled uppity women or. someone else. Always Them. And when Them is at fault for your failed life, then you don’t fight against the real problems of hate, inequality, and, hey, why not bring it up: the drug war. That’s how they get you–those sweet nothings that go like: Your failure is not your fault. Also? You certainly can’t do anything about it. Because of Them. So don’t try.
Know what that sounds like to me? Rendering good strong people into braindead zombies.
Those predatory monied men will soothe people into becoming a zombie: Come to us, they purr. You are loved here. You are not rejected here. Everyone ELSE is against you, it’s not your fault. Come to us. Come embrace this hate, and you’ll no longer be alone. Women are the problem, Others are the problem, not you. THEM are the problem, not US. Here, drink this. It’ll make you feel better. You’re getting too angry. You’re not getting angry enough. Here, take this shot. It’ll calm you down. Follow us. (Said the spider to the fucking desperate fly)…
And so it goes.
It’s eons more difficult to really heal, mend, look at oneself in an actual mirror (not a fake one that is put up to let you walk in and [literally] lose your mind), to do the actual work, to admit failure and move forward, than it is to just follow, follow, follow. Whither shall I follow, follow thee? Give me an order. Making my own decision is too, too, hard. And I’m broke anyway. What does it matter? Right? That’s how they get you—they kick you when you’re down, down, down.
The zombies are the shit extruded by these predators. And they won’t stop. “You can’t kill them / they’re already dead.” (this whole song is brutal but true.)
But you know what Pharoahe Monch sang:
“SIMON SAYS: GET THE FUCK UP”
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Yeah, butt all the CONSPIRACIES are cumming TRUE tho, Zuko. Butt I didnt say that to make it bout Conspiracies. I said it cuz it seems to be sumpen MYSTERIOUS in the AIR/a HIDDEN FORCE/The ZEITGEIST done becum this SPIRIT of HUMANITY making em wanna DISAPPEAR into these Sertifiable DRUGS and becum CITIZENS of a ZOMBIE NATION/No longer FUNCTIONING except as like GHOSTS and its SAD, Zuko. Cuz it reminds me that THERE FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO MAH ASS, too!!
Ultimately, I Think You are RITE. I think the best Soulution is to do wut SIMON SAYS.
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--the end--
 | A guest post by
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Im digging this totally IMPROVISED joint off the top. Im still scared of EL VICKS.
Loverly