You stare down at
four burned out
Romeo y Julieta
cigar stubs
five silver beer
bottle caps
shining through
a mound of ash
in the ashtray
you grab the
longest stub
the one you were
smoking last
before you got up
to take a piss
and revive it
between your lips
with the last match
you draw in
long and good
then blow out hard
sighing simultaneously
watching the smoke
spreading across
the small room
swirling up through
the green lamp shade
rising out of the top
like a genie
without any wishes
to grant you
"My name is Robert Plath. I'm 34 years old from New York. I studied under Allen Ginsberg from '95-'97. I have been published a lot in Big City Lit, Evolution, Chiron, Long Island Quarterly, Long Islander, Lunatic Chameleon, Nerve Cowboy, Pearl, Poetry Bay, Polarity, Twisted Nipples,and Sho. My chapbook collection Ashtrays and Bullswon won 1st prize in Nerve Cowboy's 2003 Chapbook contest. I also appear on two tracks of the Northport Celebrates Kerouac CD featuring David Amram. I write because my heart beats 4,800 times per hour and the planet spins 1,200 miles per hour. Writing keeps me from feeling dangerously dizzy. I also write like Kerouac said, 'because we're all gonna die.'"