John Dorsey

Poem for the Original Pink Lady

somewhere you are frozen in time forever
thirty years old & resting your head
above a cincinnati pizza shop
even then you seem tired
or maybe bored
cutting your wrists on the couch
with a dull disposable razor blade
as if you were knitting a sweater for nick cave
out of empty mountain dew bottles & cigarette butts
proclaiming your love in an angry song
on the docks of billy childish’s broken heart

you dance like a little girl
hiding inside
a burning tire.

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.