Two Poems

Stephanie Dinsae

May 19, 2022

somewhere along the wild growth of seattle

I play the protagonist, we travel
along roads ridden with abandoned cars,
girlfriend by our side
fairytale posing as apocalypse
what would a queer story be
without fungus-wearing flesh eaters,
bashing in the heads of civilians

we watch as the world
caves in on us
and our girlfriend, a kiss no time
to linger, a quest
for vengeance becomes a search
party becomes a quest for vengeance
the pristine pixel landscape
of surreal nature green
well-acquainted with disorder
buildings of contaminated vegetation
littered all over

tightly I hold our girlfriend’s
hand, grasping for a hunting pistol
to kill the infected
their snarls growing louder
the circle of them edging closer,
tightening around us, their chaos
no threat to our spark, undead, ungrey

---

the main ensemble is predominantly white

in addition to flesh eaters,
the protagonist and I
must fight against two opposing
human factions full of crew members,
hundreds, maybe thousands
of characters of color
used as bloody backdrop
                  or plot propeller

I murder so many crew members,
non-playable, often Black,
their bodies disposable
forgotten, faded
into the hyper vibrant high grass
no time to mourn,
new enemies generate
as quick as I get rid of them
with its owner’s blood on my hands,
I pick up a machete
                  and swing