Zephyr Zhang 张挚
we are frogs and I love you by the river
where we build our home, where we appraise each pebble
mud-mortaring our riverstone walls, the pebbles glistening
our slick bodies glistening as we lie on the sun-warmed
bank, hearing the boulders grinding, waiting for the stream
to etch itself a canyon, for the storm to break
for the raindrops to rivulet down your face, to kiss
under a dripping leaf, your straw waistcoat soaking
at night I am restless so you whisper into my tympanum
tell me to imagine that we are humans, big and doughy, splashing
through the waterhole, felling and milling handsome trees
assembling a log cabin to house all our special pine cones
and while the world rustles, we are sitting in front of the fire
without dehydrating, singing sweet songs, falling asleep
in each other’s stubborn arms
playing grand theft auto after bumping into my ex
i am running over dogs in gta v. i am running over a stuck-up little dog who always negs me
a two-faced dog with no moral compass. i am running it over in my pegassi infernus
back and forth back and forth, the world now a better place. now i am tasering a cow
a cow who never celebrated my successes. the cow is running away. come back here, cow!
now it is tasered, now it is falling sideways. now it is asleep, buzzing with electricity
now it is still and can’t give me complex trauma. i am also shooting a cat with an assault rifle
the kind of cat that you talk about for three years in therapy, the kind of cat that isolates you
from all other cats. the cat meets eight bullets, ten bullets! but the security camera is pivoting
the security camera is watching me. now i am running and now i am running and now i am
driving through the grand senora desert. i am driving off of the los santos airport bridge!
when i am trevor philips nothing can touch me. pixels cascade as the pigs close in
but i am laughing with my unlimited restarts, my heart no longer wasted.
burger king poem
the burger king in newmarket is closing down
it is entering another dimension
I access that dimension when I dream of $1 xl tingleberry frozen slushies
I ask them what’s a tingleberry
they cut my chicken burger in half
that chicken burger is my heart
I sit in a booth against the red shiny cushions
there is mayonnaise all over the table
my girlfriend orders 5 ketchup packets
she rips a tear in them and drinks them all
they are out of peach orbz
peach orbz represent world peace
we are out of peach orbz and world peace
there is a sad blue cow in the prize cascade
it has no udder
I am udderly disappointed
I imagine crawling into the prize collection bin
so somebody will come along and collect me
and put me in the cupboard
forever
oh little blue cow
no one can milk you
Zephyr Zhang 张挚 is sleepy, a geotechnical engineer and a sometimes-writer, in that order. They recently performed in the Auckland Theatre Company iteration of Scenes from a Yellow Peril. Zephyr has been published in Mayhem, Oscen, Gen M and a range of independent zines.