Sleeping Tips for the Partially Blind
after they check your blood pressure
you mention again how you can’t sleep
& the nurse reminds you
that you have only one eye now
as if you could ever forget
she says that the blind
sometimes have trouble sleeping
& that might be your problem too
you think about light you don’t notice now
things in dreams that just feel incomplete
like an unfinished painting
or half of a song
where you never get to see
how lovely a girl’s hands are
when there are only half as many stars
to radiate the night sky.
Poem for the Dead Mouse on the Edge of My Bed
you remind me of
all of the things
that randall jarrell
could wash out of a ball turret
with just a few words
but he was never here
to help guide your spirit
through the clouds
& bring you in
out of
the rain.
Farewell Tour
at fifteen we all want to fly into the sun
when it still seems like there’s plenty of time
to find our way back
on that next bit of highway
before the road less traveled
is closed for repairs
before crumbling away altogether
where kerouac & richard hugo
throw their wild fists in the air
blanketing the montana sky with youth
never imaging they’ll be dead
never dreaming that this is where
all of the wishing wells
will run out of water
at 46 i think about how someone
had to find ted berrigan’s bloated body
about how someone had to chip
bruce embree’s broken heart free
from an icy idaho stream
as a pair of deers drank in every word
one day soon
i’ll end up in some dry missouri patch of grass
right now though i’m thinking about how
at fifteen i raised my fist
at a kiss concert in a now demolished arena in pittsburgh
i think about how
like god
gene simmons
could make the lights go dim
just by waving his hands
& how kiss could keep coming back
every few years
fatter & fatter with their makeup running down their faces
under the broiling stage lights
without ever once reaching the sun
& how while kerouac remains buried in the ground
sometimes farewell
doesn’t have to mean forever.
John Dorsey is the former poet laureate of Belle, Missouri and the author of Pocatello Wildflower. He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.
Chantarelle's Notebook 