On streets placed as precisely as floor tiles
in the shadow of soaring office towers,
the zombies roam,
shuffling their feet in stunted, uneven steps,
staring blankly, eyes fixed firmly in the past,
muttering unintelligibly.
With reclaimed treasures stacked in shopping carts
and claims staked under stone doorway arches,
they live as ghosts
while the wind-whipping flag animates the
extinct bear and blood-red stripe
serpentines.
Matthew J. Andrews is a private investigator and writer who lives in Modesto, California. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Orange Blossom Review, Funicular Magazine, Red Rock Review, Sojourners, Amethyst Review, Kissing Dynamite, and Deep Wild Journal, among others. He can be contacted at matthewjandrews.com.
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THE CITY KEY 