Timothy Dodd is from Mink Shoals, West Virginia in the heart of Appalachia. He is the author of short story collections Fissures and Other Stories (Bottom Dog Press), Men in Midnight Bloom (Cowboy Jamboree Press), and Mortality Birds (Southernmost Books, with Steve Lambert), as well as the poetry collection, Modern Ancient (High Window Press), In addition to appearing in earlier editions of El Portal, Tim’s stories have appeared in Yemassee, Glassworks Magazine, and Anthology of Appalachian Writers; his poetry in Crab Creek Review, Roanoke Review, Crannog, and elsewhere. Also a visual artist, Tim primarily exhibits his oil paintings in the Philippines. Sample artwork can be found on his Instagram@timothybdoddartwork. His website is timothybdodd.wordpress.com.
Unye Terminal, After Midnight by Timothy Dodd
Dogs slink around the lot
of domestication, keeping
close to gate. Somewhere
voices stress against each
other in the void, and out
past the station, cars wheeze
across the night’s highway.
The next bus pulls in, out:
someone surely knows where
it’s going, and someone surely
believes in destination, like me
sitting here in a time capsule’s
darkness, taking it for granted
that morning light will come.
El Portal Literary Journal 