JOHN DORSEY

GERARD MELANGA’S NECK TIES
—for bill roberts

beautiful women
once nearly tore them to shreds
what’s left is soft perfumed fingers
lost in a black & white photograph
taken in saks fifth ave in 1962
every mother’s son
with hair gently brushed
with pearl white teeth
beaming with confidence
out front
cars honking
in the streets
in america’s wide arms
only to end up in a battered mailbox
on a narrow country road
one man’s past
is another’s time machine
when i place them against my skin
i feel as if I’m draped
in a better life.

TREES OF BONE
—for jim carroll

scraps of paper
thrown into a fire
aren’t meant
to be collected
like leftover stardust.

John Dorsey is the former Poet Laureate of Belle, MO. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Which Way to the River: Selected Poems: 2016-2020 (OAC Books, 2020), Sundown at the Redneck Carnival, (Spartan Press, 2022, and Pocatello Wildflower, (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2023). He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.

All rights © John Dorsey