Found Out

Ian Mullins: Found Out

Found Out

by Ian Mullins

Grass – Informer, esp. criminal who betrays others. (Collins English Dictionary)

They found a body here,
July ‘86, with a face no one knew
and fingerprints never found.

So buried him “unknown”
next to men with names
and lines of old poems.
Men with dutiful daughters

watering dead plants,

kneeling to trim with nail scissors
grass that grows faster

than hair in a coffin,

culling known and nameless

alike. But the stranger

will only shake his head

when the daughters ask

if he knew the faceless one;

the man he named, the grass

he culled. The body

they found here, July ‘86.

Whose hair grows longer

by the day.

Ian Mullins ships out from Liverpool, England. The chapbook Almost Human (Original Plus), concerning his ongoing battle with Asperger’s Syndrome, was released into the care of the community in 2017. Dirty Sweet (Anxiety Press) was released early in 2023, followed by Fear of Falling Backwards (Cactus Mutt Press) near the end of 2023. The movie-themed NightWatchMan (Alien Buddha Press) followed in 2024.

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. 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.