Colin Dodds grew up in Massachusetts and completed his education at The New School in New York City. Norman Mailer wrote that Dodds’ novel The Last Bad Job showed “something that very few writers have; a species of inner talent that owes very little to other people.” Dodds’ novels What Smiled at Him and Another Broken Wizard have been widely acclaimed by critics and readers alike. His screenplay, Refreshment–A Tragedy, was named a semifinalist in the 2010 American Zoetrope Contest. Two books of Dodds’ poetry, The Last Man on the Moon and The Blue Blueprint, are available from Medium Rare Publishing. Dodds’ writing has also appeared in a number of periodicals including The Wall Street Journal Online, Folio, Explosion-Proof, Block Magazine, The Architect’s Newspaper, The Main Street Rag, The Reno News & Review, and Lungfull! Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn NY with his wife Samantha.
Los Angeles During the Fires
By Colin Dodds
You can taste the wood ash in the air
LA looks like the world ended
And nobody bothered to tell it
The oil derricks pump away like copulating crickets
Reassuringly
The city, they say, is surrounded by mountains
But wherever I look
Its distances fade into a dirty mist
Like a dream left too long on the lawn
Great description and imagery.