A Bad Bowl of Oatmeal in Ogden, Utah

for abraham smith

you hand me a coffee mug of grains

& weathered berries floating in water

instant black coffee

like my grandfather made

when he was laid off

by the mill in 1984

while you wait for your girlfriend

to leave her husband

after years of being knocked around

your hands shaking

we’re both left waiting

for the sun to come up

there’s nothing about this morning

that doesn’t feel cold.

Lake Erie Prayer

for ken mikolowski

the best poems

have no money

they white knuckle

the afternoon

balancing the weight

of an empty soup bowl

swimming

in dirty water

because like us

they just

don’t want

to die

in detroit.

David Lynch at Little Pete’s

you sat alone

dipping russian sweet bread

into split pea soup

at 3 in the morning

the waitresses warned everyone

not to approach you

the lights overhead

flickered like a dying firefly

half drunk

when they told me

you’d paid for my hamburger

i watched you walk out

& go around the corner

weirder than any frame of film

ever captured

of a fly drowning

in a bowl of soup.

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, Pocatello Wildflower, (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2023) and Dead Photographs, (Stubborn Mule Press, 2024). He may be reached at archerevans@yahoo.com.