Jerry Garcia & German Root Beer
for dan harshman
in another life
i sit there drinking
a flat german soda
from a glass bottle
while the two of you
drink from a well
of high school memories
i frame the photo
with a bad poem
thirty years in the past
pimples on my face
the room has gone dark
& the dead are grateful
just to have been
alive.
About the Author: John Dorsey is the former Poet Laureate of Belle, MO. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Which Way to the River: Selected Poems: 2016-2020 (OAC Books, 2020), Sundown at the Redneck Carnival, (Spartan Press, 2022, and Pocatello Wildflower, (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2023). He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.
Image Credit: John Margolies “Bob’s Root Beer sign, Fallon, Nevada” Public domain image courtesy of the Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 