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. 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. 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.

In the Infraction

Trying to count the number of drinks it takes
to feel like I wasn’t born
into the wrong species and solar system

Nose pressed to thick foggy glass in my idlest hours
Reminiscing about blackout-stanched evenings
and friendships badly ended
I sure wish I could reminisce better

Losing count of the drinks it takes
to sing along with the voice that hums
Just because you’re tired
doesn’t mean you should go to sleep
Just because you’re baffled
doesn’t mean you need an answer

Watching football and rooting for the ball
awash in ads for male-failure pills
TV cheerleaders reflected
in the scratched plastic of framed photos
of the bar owner’s flash-whitened son posing
with shitfaced not-quite celebrities

And yet I expect visions