Durell Carter
Eight Things I Learned From My Zombie Apocalypse Dream
1. I fear not being able to use my hands when it’s time to push back the people
who have died inside, and the people who live death entirely.
2. My reward for living is learning how to find food that has not been touched
by bacteria disguised as piranha teeth that want to devour us while still being
thankful to find a minute to dance underneath a living moon.
3. I should dance more.
4. Moats don’t work if the dead are desperate enough to touch you. You are their game,
and there’s no running away from the dead to you who refuse to be a full ghost and
memory.
5. The nightmare doesn’t end when I reach the safe house; it ends when my family
gets there before me.
6. I need to learn how to bake a McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie!
(If I am going to live, I still want to eat the things that take their time to kill you.)
7. I am not the only one wearing blood, sweat, and dirt on my clothes that reek from
swimming through the violence the Earth pooled around us.
8. There are flowers outside.
I am going to smell them.
Durell Carter is a writer based in Oklahoma City. He holds an M.A. in Literature from the University of Central Oklahoma. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the Best New Poets Anthology. He is the author of the chapbook Mr. Monday Morning’s Broken Songs and Testimonies.
Banner Art:
Photo by Rowan Heuvel, Unsplash, 2026
