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Zonnet Eighteen
Shall I compare thee to the rambling dead
Thou art most gruesome in so many ways
Tough times don’t shake nor your actions a dread
In summer’s high heat you walk on for days
At times your skin just sizzles like bacon
More often than not it just comes right off
From here to there you may be forsaken
By luck or by chance, it starts with “the cough”
For you are eternal, that is the truth
Even when all that remains is your bones
Death shall not brag nor enslave not a tooth
Nor time rule its court with punishment stones
So long as the dead shall walk, may it be
So longer still, may death look good on thee
October Candy
always delicious
caramel coated secrets
filling head to toe
every known desire
into every shape of joy
pleasure without end
for one complete year
all the lust you could handle
for all your reasons
happy with your luck
you named the part, it was played
never asking why
shifting every mood
whatever flavor you liked
blonds, brunettes, redheads
as a year draws near
probably don’t remember
October promise
she is still a witch
signed a contract with your blood
one year for your soul
Seven More Chupacabra Truths
Number Eight
what is true happiness
except the harmony
between a chupacabra
and the goats he must slay
Number Nine
so long as the book of
Chupacabra Truths remains empty
so shall your life
remain devoid of belief
Number Ten
don’t put the chupacabra
before the bloodless evidence
it’s brother, the wolf
has a claim in the deed
Number Eleven
dead chupacabras tell no tales
dead goats cry no crime
denying the wrongful deed
taunting coyotes do no time
Number Twelve
a goat dies a thousand deaths
the dog simply goes missing
the cat will go through at least nine lives
but the chupacabra lives forever
Number Thirteen
a chupacabra without fangs
is like a goat in its clutches
a chupacabra without fangs
are like fat, defenseless kolaches
Number Fourteen
truth killed the goat
a temporary belly as coffin
hunger pushed the chupacabra
to a lifetime of murder
Chupa-Ku, Volume XII: No. 56-60
handled correctly
a caged chupacabra
might not harm a soul
endangered specie
how the grey chupacabra
entered your mainstream
horror is sitting
by the old dead mesquite tree
watching intently
what is a dinner
but a four-legged victim
free for consumption
when writing freely
about el chupacabra
remember to growl
Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of indigenous descent and the current Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of O’ Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin’s Definition of Horror (2009), Live from La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume 1 (2014), and Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), as well as the co-editor of The Call of the Chupacabra (2018).