John Dorsey
just once i wish

it wasn't

all in my mind
these women dying in
lillies red cross meat
wagons as if this
were saigon or what
would have been sometime
in april 1862 at
4:23 a.m. sitting in
this diner of confederate
soldiers who seem to
say "good morning sunshine"
the radio turned low
to midwestern country twang
fried eggs the songs
of heartbreak sung at
shotgun weddings medusa's coils
turned to stone over
a case of pabst
blue ribbon mistaken identity
sleep falling from your
eyes like the stock
market in 1929 chanting
let's be honest you've
never heard of vachel
lindsay it's cool in
your dreams they play
hank williams roll a
joint sweep the floor
drop a copy of
arrested development's "tennessee" into
a dumpster for the
ghost of the hangmen
used as a noose
by day your hands
smell like honey and
hickory whispers falling off
the radar and easily
back into robert frost
hallmark greeting cards of
dreaming before joyce kilmer
died some loveletter death
trying to see the
forrest for the trees
the american dream turned
inward all this for
the song from the
ancient rattle's
tongue