Author’s Note: These poems, along with several hundred others, are part of a larger erasure collection entitled Pocatello Wildflower, which examines the words of a group of Idaho writers who worked primarily from the 1970’s to the 1990’s, including the late Bruce Embree, who really got the ball rolling in my head and heart, with a few still working today. It is my great hope that folks will be interested in the original writers work, in addition to my own. Pocatello Wildflower will be available in 2023 from Crisis Chronicles Press. Thanks for reading.
My Parents strangers raised us in ditchbank weeds on combat rations it was love & bruises no pity in the blowing dust. Moving Past the Fetish last year’s growing storm a lost friend famous people not humping boulders like me in the foolish september moon. The River of Lovers could burn enough nostalgia to find comfort in our past a whirl of wind. Rosie Died goats river rock his father never blinked feet first alley shadows lilacs a bad dream catches in his throat. Pocatello Tattoo i lost my horse my body a boxcar of coaldust pocatello pocatello pocatello this country of shame died in the trees rolled west in shoshone in boise in pocatello pocatello pocatello april whiskey on the spot where the sun goes down like a red-hot needle.
About the Author: 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.
Image Credit: Chase Dimock “Cholla Bone” (2021)
As It Ought To Be 