The Gorko Gazette

Daily Humor

thegorkogazette

5.21.2026 6:36 AM

Poetry

The Blaze of Yesterday and 1 more by Donna Dallas

The Blaze of Yesterday

Pops in to visit
the dark hallway
green faux wood panels
us seated on the cold floor

That day when the house caught fire
tattooed into my core
spread fast like disease
overtook the neighbor’s house

We watched
each little burned fleck – our pieces of home
turn to ash
crunched under the firemen’s boots

Running through that hallway
escaping down a rabbit hole to now
where this fireplace builds up so much ash

Never as much as what piled up
from that blaze of fury
or from what memory holds
of those moments
the minds precious bend of events
that allows one to recover

Somethin Goin Down at the Tide

The transients huddled together
outside their rooms at the two-story motel
just off the beach
watch the buses and trailers pull in
to set up for a film scene

Never happened before at the Tide
no one gave a hoot about the rickety stairs
the faded blue doors
cracked and withered

They watch
oohing and ahhing
the sixteen year old mother with two babies
from room 7
the clown from room 8
prison escapees peak out through the blinds
in room 11

Orange haired leprechaun and his broomstick
in the doorway of 12
room 9 and 10 – noone’s seen them – ever
but they pay the front desk weekly

Pedophiles from 14
runaway lovers outside of 2
6’ 8” man in 15 who stands
outside his doorway 5am to 11am every day

All of them together in amazement
some kind of bizarre human coming togetherness
to see
the making of a film
they will never watch – or maybe they will
and say they were a part of it
they shared that epic moment
with the Tide
as they later wander off
to their own

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Donna Dallas has appeared in a plethora of journals, most recently Beatnik Cowboy, Quail Bell Magazine, Blood Moon Rising and Fevers of the Mind. She is the author of Death Sisters, her legacy novel, published by Alien Buddha Press. Her first chapbook, Smoke and Mirrors, launched in 2022 with New York Quarterly. Her second chapbook, Megalodon, launched in 2023 with The Opiate. Donna has served on the editorial team of Red Fez and NYQ.

donnaanndallas@gmail.com
@DonnaDallas15