Thanks to some of the many John Ross fans out there, I’ve begun to collect a treasure trove of his poetry, much of it either unpublished or published in limited-circulation chapbooks. Even John didn’t have all of his work when he died, and there’s no central collection. So I’m going to post a couple more of my favorites here — and at somepoint, we have to figure out a way to publish the whole collection.
Here’s one from Running Out of Coast Lines (1985) called “Ohio.”
The snow is sooted
with the scrapings of burnt toast
and the crumbs of industry.
There are citizens asleep beneath it,
buried alive inside dark cocoons,
out of work and under the quilts
alarm clocks left unwound
to roll back the boozy winter,
just a deep snooze in February
the drifted fields and streets,
unscuffed, untraveled,
unhitched trailers,
going nowhere, no one
can find their car in Toledo anymore.
Snow is stasis, it sticks in Cleveland,
it freezes the veins of venom
inside the Cayahuga, gases
are suspended until further notice.
A man who once turned tractor tires
big as a house both of them
rolls over in the white bed
in Sandusky and tries to dream
only of the good parts.
Here’s “Kansas City” from The Daily Planet (1981)
Just when we absolutely had to split
she stepped up
like she owned a piece of history
and meant to lease it to us
right there on the spot.
I never knew Charlie Parker she said
slipping Bish the pic
in which she looked so slick
in a tophat and tuxedo
but I danced in the line
with June Williams
at the Jockey Club
before she run crazy in the streets
buckass naked up 18th
my she had a beautiful figure
June Williams
she said standing alone
in the doorway of the peeling porch
in the spring thundershower
pelting the helpless shrubbery outside.
O I toedance and play the vibes
and I can dance on tabletops too
only isn’t no work in Kansas City
since they merged the unions
the black union and the white one.
She wore a red beret and talked slow
loke she’d been slipping sweet-toothed wine
or else jamming skag, one.
Nope no work here in Kansas City
the machines play all the music now
they got a clique down at the union hall
things ain’t what
they used to be.
And one of my all time favorites, from The Daily Planet, is called “Wanted.”
She is wanted
Catherine Louise Como
also known as
Kathleen May Wright
Manon Minette
Catherine Ann James
Manon James
Cathy Wright
Minon Manette
She is wanted
also known as
Catherine Share
Catherine Louise Share
Janice Thompson
Betty Cox
Darleen Cook
also known as
Suzanne Bronson
Donna Todd
Mary Thomas
Janet Gross
Betty Bowers
Jessica Daniels
also known as
Gypsy
she is wanted
born Xmas ’42
France a tough war
a known Caucasian
she is wanted.
She is wanted
and she has
brown eyes, brown hair
and small bullet wound scars
on her right sholder
and her right hip.
In two of the mug shots
taken several years ago
Sacramento Calif
her hair is pulled too taut
atop her ears
and her swollen lower lip
curls defiantly
at the police photographer.
In the third, taken months later,
the unbraided hawsers of her hair
tumble wantonly to her shoulders
and she looks like she wants to bite
the arresting officer
on the fat white folds
of his throat.
There are two sets of
small dangerous fingerprints,
checkforging fingerprints,
mail fraud fingerprints,
tilltapping fingerprints.
She is wanted by the FBI
she is wanted by the federal marshalls,
she is wanted in the U.S. Mails,
she is wanted in California, Oregon, Nevada,
and 47 other states.
She is wanted
and she is armed
and considered to be dangerous
and that small I think crescent-shaped scar
on her smooth white hip
drives me 74 way bananas
every time
I try to buy
a 20-cent stamp.