Zombie Girl

and through. For her, there was no chance of going back.
She was a sure thing from the get-go.
* * *
And so the zombie girl grew inside Zelda, who ate only the
healthiest greens and grains, and sang Schubert and union
songs from the 1930s to the zombie baby ripening inside
her.
And when the zombie girl emerged, like a prickly pear in
bloom, the parents, and the doctor in green plaid pants who
attended the birth, saw something they later forced
themselves to forget – that the zombie girl floated in the air
for just a moment, its umbilical cord coiling in space.
And the zombie girl opened her eyes and beheld her
mother and father, and said Ahhh.
She was the most beautiful baby anyone had ever seen.
When she blinked in the August air, a single tear rolled
down her already moist face.
* * *
People were astonished at the new baby's countenance,
which was impossibly confident.
“She is so beautiful, I would trade all three of my own
children for her,” said Mrs. Woodruff, whose children were
not chopped liver.
“How can someone so young be so poised?” asked Clara
the occasional babysitter. “It's not natural!”
There were some who denied the obvious. “Oh certainly,
she's pleasant enough,” said Marian Kitchener, the
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