chill flowers for elliott smith. By Rob Plath

once at one 
of yr shows 
somebody heckled 
you by repeatedly 
yelling, 
“get backbone!”
& you
alone on stage 
in a small chair 
took it gracefully
joking that you 
didn’t even play 
the real dark stuff 
that evening 
laughing it off...
dear elliott—
hell, you had 
enough backbone
for a thousand men 
for meeting 
yr monsters 
upon the fretboard 
& turning them
into chill flowers 
dear elliott, you 
sweet sad sack 
the masses 
could use 
yr backbone

rob plath is a writer from new york.  he is most known for

his monster collection  A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY (epic rites press 2009) .  

his newest collection is MY SOUL IS A BROKEN DOWN VALISE (epic rites press 2019). 

you can see more of his work at robplath.com