The Living Dead that will Never be Expected | Teen Ink

The Living Dead that will Never be Expected

February 4, 2014
By DespondentPen SILVER, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
DespondentPen SILVER, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
5 articles 0 photos 8 comments

One does not have to worry about
some sort of "Zombie Apocalypse."
Yet,
the human race must still resist
a kind of Living Dead
that will never be expected.
Not a skeleton missing flesh,
not some disinterred corpse.
No.
It is the nature
of the Living Dead to be
much more subtle.
It may already be happening.
A "going through the motions."
We eat our food,
brush our teeth,
press buttons on a board
for eight hours.
To think that this is life...
...how foolish.
This is flipping through the pages
without actually reading.
This is a job.
A job that we do.
That is all.
This isn't a career.
This is surviving,
not living.
This is the Living Dead that will never be expected.
A Living Death is some invisible,
intangible obstacle.
It makes the sun colorless,
clouds our water,
chips paint,
rusts iron,
leeches determination
as our bodies,
minds,
and souls fall to pollution.
This obstacle,
this treacherous obstacle.
It prevents us from declaring.
expressing,
shouting,
yelling,
squealing,
saying,
acknowledging that we are alive.
Ever.
The human race survives.
Yet we do not live.
We do not enjoy, experience.
We are living, but dead.
We are the Living Dead:
The Living Dead that will never be expected.


The author's comments:
This is what I call "rant poetry." I vent out all of my anger, and write as if I were hysterically lecturing someone on why he/she MUST see things from my point of view. This is a free-form style that changes subject, yet refers back to one line. I was inspired to write this when I could not submit an electronic assignment at school, and I kept on asking myself why everything had to be done with technology that I couldn't keep up with. I thought that all of our boring lives filled with us using technology was putting us through daily routines, avoiding any deviance, and therefore taking away from the meaning of life. Of course, what is the opposite of life? Death. Enjoy.

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This article has 2 comments.


on Feb. 12 2014 at 10:46 pm
Sissybear BRONZE, Greenacres, Washington
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
Every man is born as many men, and dies as a single one. -Martin Heidegger

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. -Henry David Thoreau

I really like this. I do however feel like it is a bit more submissive than ranting, as though you've resigned to the fact that the Living Dead is an inescapable fate rather than frantically trying to persuade someone to see things your way, as your comment suggests. The tone is a bit melancholy and almost apathetic, as I read it. Nonetheless, it's very good. I was just expecting a bit more fire (:

e2000 SILVER said...
on Feb. 10 2014 at 8:36 am
e2000 SILVER, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
6 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together... there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." -Winnie the Pooh

Hi Ben! Nice job!  I really like it.  Your poetry is amazing... please teach me :) --E