Zombie Cowboy & the Girl Who Didn't Know How to Live by Tamsen Grace

              Zombie Cowboy and the Girl Who Didn't Know How to Live

• For too long, I was a puppet of the fates.
  How they must have laughed,
  as I twisted and danced,
  helplessly in their macabre play.
  So I tore my strings away,
  took fate in my own hands,
  And I escaped to Arkansas.
• 
  
• I found a ride with a zombie cowboy,
  Who told me jokes about sheep,
  And taught me that I didn't always have to be the grownup.
  That it's ok to get drunk on hippie juice, before noon,
  as you float lazily along, debating politics and life,
  with a zombie cowboy and a man in a cowboy hat with horseshoe glasses.
  Floating in our own little cosmos, we were a cross section of life,
  Different ages, at different stages of our lives.
  Just drifting along in our sheltered cove,
  as we slowly  got  drunk on sunlight, fresh air and the beauty of a day,
  where there was nothing to do but float.
  And  all our myriad of problems,
  some life changing, some minute,
  would cease to exist in our own little aquarium .
  


• I learned so much in those few, short days.
  Floating in the water with a head on a stick,
  I learned the value of friendship.
  I saw that sometimes you have to climb up a high cliff and jump into the water,
  just because it's in front of you. 
  I learned the joy of driving fast and free over the water,
  as long as you don't let fear make you brake too quickly.
  And I learned that, when like Atlas, 
  you have the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, at times it's alright to shrug and just let it fall off.
  You can always pick up the load again later.
• 
  
• The last night, lying on the dock under the starlight,
  being romanced by that zombie cowboy, 
  We talked about love and pain,
  And about how hard it is to come back to life after you have died.
  And how the stars are brighter in Arkansas,
  especially  for a zombie cowboy and for  a girl who never really learned
  how to let loose and live.
  When a shooting star broke free of it's constraints
  and flew above our heads 
  across the luminous night sky,
  We kissed for luck.
  But I already knew my luck had changed, 
  for how many times
  do you get a chance to run away to Arkansas,
  with a zombie cowboy and his friends,
  and learn that your fate is finally and forever, 
  in your own hands.

​

Bio: Tamsen Grace is a published author and poet, inspirational speaker, martial artist and a cancer survivor. She lives in the Midwest with her three children.

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