Zombie Life

Think of me as an unshriven ghost at your banquet, 
a scuttling remnant of hunger 

following you 
around the dining room table,

broadcasting like an ice cream truck 
playing a jingle around the block: 

     Let me tell you what my mother 
     my father did—show you my childhood scars 

     tell you how I cared for my husband 
     my wife, before I was abandoned, 

all hurt 
all abuse melting 

into one blind sound 
seeking any ear but its own.

Joseph Hardy is one of a handful of writers that live in Nashville, Tennessee, that does not play a musical instrument; although a friend once asked him to bring his harmonica on a camping trip so they could throw it in the fire. His wife says he cannot leave a room without finding out something about everyone in it, and telling her their stories later. His work has been published in: Appalachian Review, Cold Mountain Review, Inlandia, Poet Lore, and Poetry City among others. He is the author of a book of poetry, “The Only Light Coming In”.