A Tanka: Zombification

Magic concoctions
Ancient voodoo rituals
The undead exhumed
Revived under veil of night
Condemned to grim servitude

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TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge No. 37, hosted by Yvette.

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I recently visited the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France and was fascinated by their special exhibit: “Zombies – the origins.” For those interested, the following is the museum’s description of the zombification process:

“The process of zombification is precisely structured: the sorcerer (bokor) prepares the poison using a toxic fish… mixed with other venomous plants or animals along with powdered human bones. The preparation is then applied to the clothes of the victim.

A few hours later, when the poison takes hold, the victim appears to be dead. Burial takes place quickly and death certificates can be signed by two witnesses from the secret society. The following night, the bokor defiles the tomb and unearths the ‘corpse,’ restoring the victim to life with the help of an antidote and whipping them with long grass.

Thus stripped of both freedom and free will, the zombie may live on for several years in the service of the bokor… The zombie’s state of torpor can be maintained by depriving them of salt… When the bokor dies, or the drugging stops, the zombie may recover a degree of consciousness and potentially become free again.

Since the controversial research of Canadian ethnobotanist Wade Davis in the 1980s, who described this process in detail, we now know that the zombification process is in fact much more complex. Experiments conducted by Japanese researchers have shown that tetrodetoxin probably plays a very minor role in the process, at best. The concept of zombification is about far more than simple chemistry, and involves an entire system of beliefs and traditions.”