A Mystical
Misadventure
But never mind
me.
Again, I’m just
making the road
that goes to a
burst of vomit and shame
into the mystical
misadventure
it may very well
not be.
The dilapidated
lady
to my right is
drinking them straight,
tempting her
fate, seeking a date.
Waters thicker
than tears
drip from her
face.
Bartendrix number
seven
makes it clear
that she’s never
visited this
valley of trouble before.
She hums that action and satisfaction
are the meaning
of the evening.
But tonight’s not
the thing in the movie
and it’s not the
thing you heard of.
Compared
with the bartendrix, we’re all
sad as a couch in
the rain.
Though a
whispering there, from whoknows,
says sadness is
only a breeze
—and a relief
from the heat.
You Eff Oh
Hell
filled
Heaven
unbuilt
A
scientist came to school and told us
loneliness
doesn’t exist,
but
money does
Sentenced
to a pursuit of happiness
in
a world without end
Our
questions answered
with
mass-produced luxury items—
the
cul de sacs said amen
Lutheran,
Methodist, Latter-Day Saints
churches
wherever state highways crossed
The
ghost of God haunted the hills
so
heavily
But
the orange gas station signs said it best—
there
is a Gulf, a Gulf indeed
I
borrowed my mother’s car
And
flew past the schools and strip malls,
flew
past the churches and gas stations
I
was a flying object
who
aspired to be unidentified
Colin Dodds is
the author of Another Broken Wizard, Windfall, and The Last Bad Job,
which Norman Mailer touted as showing “something that very few writers have; a
species of inner talent that owes very little to other people.” His writing has
appeared in more than two hundred publications and been nominated for the
Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Anthology. Poet and songwriter David
Berman (Silver Jews, Actual Air) said of Dodds’ work: “These
are very good poems. For moments I could even feel the old feelings when I read
them.” Colin’s book-length poem That Happy Captive was a
finalist for the Trio House Press Louise Bogan Award as well as the
42 Miles Press Poetry Award in 2015. And his screenplay, Refreshment,
was named a semi-finalist in the 2010 American Zoetrope Contest. Colin lives in
Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter. See more of his work at thecolindodds.com.
