boy genius

by J.J. Campbell

sometimes the pain

takes me on a voyage

usually down the void

tempting death at every

corner

and here come the old

lovers laughing as they

tried to tell me

but, you know

boy genius never had

to listen to others

trying to find a vein

in a thunderstorm

knowing this isn’t going

to be one of my finer

moments

a homeless guy told me

at seventeen that we were

under no direct orders to

leave a beautiful corpse

sure, that’s the one piece

of advice i remember to

this day

time for that strong ass

drink so i might get a

few hours of sleep

now if i could just

find the pills. . . .

J.J. Campbell (1976–?) is old enough to know better. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at Synchronized Chaos, Horror Sleaze Trash, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Rye Whiskey Review, and Mad Swirl. You can catch him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)

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.