|
UNDERGROUND VOICES: POETRY
|
|
JOHN DORSEY thumbprint on the side of a time machine my grandmother was hit by a car on the streets of pittsburgh in 1961 my mother's mother dead at 26 i wasn't there i wasn't even a thumbprint on the side of a time machine though her last breath may well have been my own i heard that a group of girls played hopscotch inside the tire marks and that you could see the madonna on the wall of the local polish deli they said her last words were "i'll be billy the kid, you be death, let's pray together" today it is hard to close my eyes and count to heaven with a mouth full of rosaries and even harder still to fly a paper airplane over the roof of a steel mill but i have to do something so let's sing a little song for the body electric words that cut deeply into the bones of sunlight with death hovering overhead like a street sign like a car dancing without any breaks doctor bukowski's monster for abigail in the sunlight of madness bukowski's monster has been turned into the shadow of a young james dean the meaning gets lost caught up in the moment where stanzas get tattooed into the golden forearms of nelson algren's over medicated grandchildren searching for cool with a broken flashlight beamed toward karma there is a junky born every minute read the label shoot dice ask questions later ask the dust for its last dime spit words at the sun an eternal hot walker wait for the photo finish become a split second god in another man's miracle a house on fire we came here to watch the words burn golden like shelley's sperm like cassius clay's draft card like the embers of johnny cash's last folsom cigarette like the senseless dying of the light we were built to rage against like freedom fighters searching for a match in the rain John Dorsey currently resides in Toledo, OH. He is the author of "Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel" with S.A. Griffin and Scott Wannberg, Butchershop Press/Rose of Sharon Press/Temple of Man, 2005, and "Moshing With The Cosmos" with Iris Berry, Magenta Press, 2005. He can be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com |
|
© 2004-2009 Underground Voices |
|
|