photo by Mitchell McCleary (unsplash)
Hanging by a Thread
after almost 2 years of winter the clocks have stopped seasonal depression no longer passes with the falling leaves a squeaky wheel on a grocery cart where we quickly get what we need & rush home to safety provides little comfort where an ugly christmas sweater from a dead aunt feels like a treasure the only thing that hasn’t completely come apart. The Order of Things Now this isn’t a fireside chat the war of the worlds on the radio when the end comes we will be invisible the hands we touched as children will be kept in perfect working order & put away in a hall closet stuffed with memories a teddy bear a rumpled bed paper scattered around our messy hearts their work left undone next to a flower pot invading every room. March, 2020 we joked about it then today we are what we don’t do & thank god that david bowie doesn’t have to be here for this because dancing in a paper mask just seems silly while listening to a song from 1974 we wonder about our children how they will express everything they have to hold in we wonder will their love become a silent dance behind a closed bathroom door? The Death Toll is Great Cinema you can hear a pin drop everyone is afraid to walk into the theater in 1918 they had charlie chaplin in baggy pants to help them through the spanish flu this is different this is musical chairs without the music. Bio: John Dorsey lived for several years in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Teaching the Dead to Sing: The Outlaw's Prayer (Rose of Sharon Press, 2006), Sodomy is a City in New Jersey (American Mettle Books, 2010), Tombstone Factory, (Epic Rites Press, 2013), Appalachian Frankenstein (GTK Press, 2015) Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016) and Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Poetry, 2017),Your Daughter's Country (Blue Horse Press, 2019), Which Way to the River: Selected Poems 2016-2020 (OAC Books, 2020), Afterlife Karaoke (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2021) and Sundown at the Redneck Carnival, (Spartan Press, 2022).. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and the Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize. He was the winner of the 2019 Terri Award given out at the Poetry Rendezvous. He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.
Fevers of the Mind 