by Colin Dodds

The horror movies tell it again and again:
Reason won’t save him and nowhere is safe.
Heaven’s disbanded armies still bomb and strafe,
Harry us, in a guerilla action without end.

Spill-O once more fails to ignore
How the horrors of bottomless history roar
From the woodgrain walls,
Despite the popcorn, soda and all.

The orgasm and the om
Wait in every brick and plank.
And something else, elusive as what restrains it
Is also here, all too at home
In Spill-O’s quiet entertainments.

The rustle in the bushes, the shadow on the path,
Creeping, unstoppable, like the pull of the stars and math.
Though Spill-O may not hear it nor see,
Something cruel waits at the foot of the reality tree.

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Colin Dodds grew up in Massachusetts and completed his education in New York City. He’s the author of several novels, including WINDFALL and The Last Bad Job, which the late Norman Mailer touted as showing “something that very few writers have; a species of inner talent that owes very little to other people.” Dodds’ screenplay, Refreshment, was named a semi-finalist in the 2010 American Zoetrope Contest. His poetry has appeared in more than a hundred forty publications, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. The 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 lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife Samantha. You can find more of his work at thecolindodds.com.