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John Dorsey

Chet Baker Walked Riverside Drive

I Was a Kid

Errol Flynn's Favorite Bar

Priceless Stones

Jim Harrison's Wandering Left Eye

Mary Lou's Flowers

Only in Dreams

Joel McCrea

Babe Ruth in India

Nelson Algren Had a Two Year Old Daughter

Chet Baker Walked Riverside Drive

in the harsh winter
braving wind & snow
his front teeth
sounded like drug dealers
he’d hated in jail
despite his popularity
slicked back hair & sweet tone
his teeth had forgotten he died
the way your lips
remember the weather
in amsterdam.

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I Was a Kid

a different person
carrying my name
a valid passport
with no place to stay
twenty-five years later in paris
in photos
with no guitar.

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Errol Flynn's Favorite Bar

very old men
would be dead within months
that winter everyone behaved crazy
& everyone relived his death.
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Priceless Stones

a dozen lives
at the expense
of naked divers
you called them
astonished treasures.

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Jum Harrison's Wandering Left Eye

taught him how to read
a racing form.

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Mary Lou's Flowers

are beautiful
like a snake
writing poems.

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Only in Dreams

the dead return
to avoid
bad weather.

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Joel McCrae

girls ignite boys
with honest intentions
ida lupino wanted a match.


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Babe Ruth in India

buddha gunned down
in 1955.

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Nelson Algren Had a Two Year Old Daughter

& kept his head drunk
a loaded shotgun
outside the window
he stole a car
& died two weeks later.

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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.

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