Since Unkulunkulu had no email
The chameleon was sent to say “let them not die”
but tarried, stopping continually to blend in.
The lizard, eventually was sent,
and lost both its tail and part of its message
and before regrowing either,
proclaimed, “let them die.”
And so die they did,
but with death was the message of the chameleon:
invisible when still,
discernible when in motion.
– Zumwalt 2011
(With heartfelt tribute to zendictive’s blog)
seeds
broken imagery scattering pumpkin seeds upon the ground
rhythm shifting, implicating, wildy gesticulating
thoughts bounce over fading ideas which trample upon speculative reflections
give me a word
a simple single word
not an action
not a person, place or thing
not a conjunction, exclamation, article or
worn down, over-taxed modifier
give me a word that creates its own reality
that establishes an impossible set of events
that engages the energy of thoughtful scholars for ages upon ages
creating a library of discussion
and ignites an endless tangle of wars over interpretation
and with that word once given
give me its counterpart
that word
which, so totally complete
and unrelated to anything else,
will dissolve every other word
and then
without apology
dissolve itself.
— Zumwalt 2011
science delivers
Some order off the menu
I fancy what I can fancy;
I imagine whatever I imagine
And science delivers.
Give me a 
continually brined,
triple-hearted,
blue-blooded,
color-changing,
golden-pink,
cerulean-ringed
octopus
with drops of venom on the side
just enough to kill a full-grown gorilla.
Then I’ll try a portion of nearly translucent,
high-altitude,
streaky,
wispy,
cirrus clouds
made of hexagonal prismic plate crystals
converting sunlight
into a dazzling fire rainbow.
Follow that with hundreds of hyper-velocity stars
spit from the galaxy’s center,
millions of years ago
moving more than a million miles an hour
careening through a galaxy
that is held together by
cosmically-aged cold dark matter.
Top it all off with
various flavors of increasingly attractive quarks and anti-quarks:
up,
down,
charm,
strange,
top and
bottom
with various
spins,
color charges (red, green, blue),
masses,
and electric charge
assembled in
various palatable forms
from simple, garden variety protons and neutrons
to Sigma-sub-bees and Xi-sub-bees
to highly anticipated anti-matter anti-hypertritons.
Yep!,
I imagine what I imagine
and it’s just a matter of time
before science delivers.
What cannot be imagined
will not be.
What cannot be,
will not be imagined.
No price is too high
No wait is too long,
but clearly
being on good terms
with the head chef
ensures
some notable advantage.
-Zumwalt (2011)
zumpoems 