a necessary poem

by Rob Plath

he wrote me a letter

about how he tried

to hang himself

on a bridge in winter

but the rope broke

& he fell in the icy river

& during his stay

on the psych ward

he read my poems

one of them being

“playing simon says

w/ death“

& he thought about

how you’ll be forced

to play the game

w/ death one day

w/ out yr own hands

tying knots

or feeding bullets

into chambers, etc.

& how it helped him

to decide to just

keep on keeping

the fuck on

until that bastard death

arrives some day

to play the game

that everybody loses

& this poem is

for all those now

& over the decades

who say i write

too much about death

& who don’t understand

that i’m writing to others

as well as to myself

to just motherfucking live

Contrary to popular belief, Rob Plath is not yet under the jurisdiction of the worms. His latest book of poems, Batter the Keyboard Like a Raptor Is Behind Yr Back, is available from Laughing Ronin Press.

Cindy Rosmus originally hails from the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ, once voted the “unfriendliest city on the planet.” She talks like Anybodys from West Side Story and everybody from Saturday Night Fever. Her noir/horror/bizarro stories have been published in the coolest places, such as Shotgun Honey; Megazine; Dark Dossier; The Rye Whiskey Review, Under the Bleachers, and Rock and a Hard Place. She is the editor/art director of Yellow Mama and the art director of Black Petals. She’s published seven collections of short stories. Cindy is a Gemini, a Christian, and an animal rights advocate. She has recently branched out into photo illustration.