exterior by Pablo Vision.

two cigarettes in the dark
illuminate two human profiles
they are facing one another sitting at
a small round cafe table
they each hold the cigarette between the
pointer and middle finger
each cigarette rests in the V of the peace sign
the red cherries grow brighter as
one inhales and then the other
they gather the smoke into the branches
of their lungs
and blow it out towards one another
they are both saying the same thing
with smoke signals
their individual clouds rise above them 
forming one shape beneath the stars

sometimes it feels like loss
plants another skeleton
inside of you

as if it wasn't crowded
enough
with one set of bones

some nights you can
feel them slowly turning
in a tight embrace

this melancholy couple
dancing within

and it's almost kind of sweet
on those nights i drink away
and whistle a solemn tune
to this strange moving union

it doesn't take much
just one mutant cell
nudging another
& another

not mushroom clouds
or earthquakes

just one cell swimming within
to begin the dark dance
of replication

don't fear the murderer
or rumors of war

fear this thing blooming
inside

"THERE'S A FIST DUNKED IN BLOOD BEATING IN MY CHEST by Rob Plath shatters the barriers of what love poetry has been in the past and heralds the future of what love poetry should be - raw, dirty and dripping with blood. this book is an electrified fence we all try to climb." - Wolfgang Carstens

THERE'S A FIST DUNKED IN BLOOD BEATING IN MY CHEST is coming soon from epic rites press. It'll be available through Small Press Distribution, as well as part of The Lucky Bastards Club.

Epic Rites Press
240 - 222 Baseline Road
Suite #206
Sherwood Park, Alberta
T8H 1S8

epicritespress@gmail.com

"because all our fingers are middle ones"™