Kristian Zenz

CONTACT:
2467 Root River Parkway, West Allis, WI 53227
Email: zenzkristian@gmail.com
Website: www.kristianzenz.com

BIO:
Kristian Zenz is an American author, poet, and spoken-word artist from West Allis, Wisconsin. He has published three works, the first being a novel titled 2050, and the other two being poetry collections titled Deadly Grievances and Vernacular Whirlwind. He enjoys writing in his free time. Kristian served as a campus ambassador to his Alma mater at UW-Milwaukee, and is also supervisor of the sustainability team for Livenation concerts at Alpine Valley Music Theatre.

PUBLICATIONS:
Deadly Grievances (2021), Vernacular Whirlwind (2023)

Poetry

Highway 100 (Vernacular Whirlwind)

I love her eyes.
Those high beams look at me
A highway star, hypnotize
My black and chrome bumblebee.
I love the gaze;
Highlight white beams set me free.
Never cease to amaze,
The black and chrome bumblebee.

Whether it’s a Civic
Or a 458
Friday night at sunset:
Pull up, not a minute late!
‘Stallis Summer nights
Blacktop drag strip
Frozen custard club frenzy
A Krispy Kreme craze,
And a dream of destiny.
From Greenfield to Layton:
A symphony of sound,
Run after rampant run.
Contagious cacophony,
The pulse never goes numb.
High off potent vibrancy
Ethanol is my girls LSD.
She’s a fighter and a boxer,
But ain’t no Legacy
If she falls asleep, take her out
Make her a back-seater
In-line four, no need to shout,
He wears a white wife beater
They come from Lake Country or the 53146
Every zip code to get a whiff of gasoline fix.
Long and Tall Sally, Slim Jim and his slick-backed chicks
Mister Roboto and electric cigarette sticks
Back for eclectic atmosphere.
Passion on the street, they are two- knee deep
Cold-hearted but they bleed blue antifreeze
Money don’t fold but it sure as hell crease
When you can’t pay back Japanese lease
A show screen-written by Norm Lear
Fumigations fall like the water of Niagara
Wet like Pennzoil, that’s the Autozone Viagra
Send sour city slickers into hysteria
Slammed suspension in my small-town America
Carbon fiber wings at the rear
Rolling coal is the show, keep Lovers Lane clear
MAGA mad-hatters running high off of fear
Blazing orange down the road but ain’t hunting deer
Farm Boys with Daddy’s toys rubberneck and sneer
Adorn profane slang at the rear
Supercar showcase stands strong in silent stride
Ferrari’s his first love, but on his third wife
Appears once a year to stab youth like a knife
Hot shot in the Oscar lot larger than life
By midnight, he will disappear.

As we all do.
Highway is the avenue of our synergy,
Savior of our masculinity,
Cruise over vulnerability,
synchronized in symmetry.
We race across suburban skyline
In grey GTRs
We race at red lights redefining
Rules of the boulevard
The pursuit of unity,
In all six lanes
The fight for feeling free,
The scent of Mary Jane
The pursuit against police;
We feel no shame
Wind blown blonde hair,
Orange and purple flames
Like the living dead,
We haunt those in the way
We keep it one-hundred
For that’s our highway.

Three Headed Hydra (Nativity Scene) (Deadly Grievances)

Earth would close its many doors,
slamming each in a synchronized roar.
I opened my eyes upon the new dawn,
to enjoy the presentation of it all.

Gone were the days of taking notes,
forged in pedigree scrawl.
Here the words I wrote
grew legs and away would crawl.

I'm a fashionable perennial bloom,
caught in a change of time.
Gone with the wind, it was all too soon,
my past was no longer mine.

Born into a new world,
I was presented with gifts abound.
Immersed in presence of the unheard,
three wise heads I am blessed to shift around.

 The youngest of three, Gold she would give.
Need not to harness the shine, I would.
Your presence: I will understand, admit
to not knowing you well, I should.

The middle of three, Myrrh she would give.
The pleasure would strike consistently.
Your presence: the light of life, inhibit
the tension that is building persistently.

The elder of three, Frankincense she gave.
By the name of Abraham, of evil you rid me.
Your presence: essential through the night, you made
me unlock this tension building persistently.

They desired my company
from spring to fall
and when winter came
I wished to stand tall.

They embraced my complexity
the next spring to fall
and when summer came
I should have ended it all.

The three would control me
from spring to fall
and when autumn came
I'd have to end it all.

Thrown in waters not preferred,
I was tangled in words aloof.
The three heads of the women converged
and thus Hydra had living proof.

I got caught in the perennial doom,
caught in the death of a time.
Gone with the wind, sharp like a harpoon,
The serpentine sucked the blood of mine.

Gone was the family for which I hoped,
forged in pedigree scrawl.
Here, Hydra that I loathed
grew legs and away would crawl.

Hydra opened its many pores,
melting poison through the floor.
I would close my eyes at the crucified dawn,
but I did enjoy the presentation of it all.