Issue
#1

January
2009

2 poems by Rob Plath

hoof & heart

today i give my toenails
a long overdue clipping

i lay each hard jagged arc
on the coffee table top

when i finish i pull my socks back on
& stare at the scattered
discolored pieces of my feet

although they grow these parts
do not feel pain

i wish my heart was made of these
types of cells

that it could gallop in my chest
& like a horse's hoof on stony surfaces
of this world, not be hurt w/every beat

© Rob Plath

bicycles, tarps, & skulls

covering the old red bicycle
w/the blue tarp

i stare at the large stones
at each canvas corner

they resemble skulls

earlier on a bike ride
i was coasting down a hill
& i pedalled backwards
out of boredom

& to remind myself
that no matter how easy
things seem they will
eventually reverse themselves

oh what agony it is
'becoming' anything
in this world

like the skull-like stones
at the four corners of the tarp
the real ones await
at the edges of every map

© Rob Plath

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