Poetry by John Dorsey

          Peter Organisciak CC


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The Prettiest Girl in Santa Cruz, California

nurses a single flat beer all afternoon
her problems dropping like flies
as she slips her number 
to the vegan bartender
who won’t be with her  
when she goes 
to bail her father 
out of a tribal prison

it doesn’t matter
that her lips 
are a point of pride
that he’ll never notice

her song carrying
in the weightless boneyards 
of the dead

where anything 
shaped like a fist
gets pointed 
at the moonlight.




The Prettiest Girl in Lawrence, Kansas

has never looked 
across an entire prairie 
for the bones 
that form her history

her lips are rocky mountain songs
full of kindness
& sunshine

she is a red-tailed hawk 
before the first sign of trouble

she’d laugh if you told her
that even a willow tree
was born 
with a taste 
for blood.




The Prettiest Girl in Worcester, Massachusetts 

never dreamed that she would dance 
swan lake with a needle 
in her arm

but now she can do anything
you want for $60
in under twenty minutes flat
as the same tired birds 
circle overhead

just waiting 
for the music 
to stop.

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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 Press, 2017),Your Daughter's Country (Blue Horse Press, 2019), and Which Way to the River: Selected Poems 2016-2020 (OAC Books, 2020). 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 [email protected].

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