![LA.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmaoUTBeFMdP6UKt9vij8pba772R78JiENiRiLYRXdTfdR/LA.png) Cover concept that Benjamin Blake put together with help from his tattooist, Tommy Bucket.

All The Feral Dogs of Los Angeles

From Benjamin Blake (Southpaw Nights) and Cole Bauer, comes the new split poetry collection All The Feral Dogs of Los Angeles. Poems full of life, death, dust, lust and liquor, All The Feral Dogs of Los Angeles reads like a drunken love-letter to the City of Fallen Angels.

Benjamin Blake

Lights & Sirens

Roadside surgery Performed in back rooms of low-lit bars I came so close to bleeding out That I made my peace with God Then renounced His very name Some things are just not worth it Patched up and back behind the wheel A quart of brandy my old-time remedy For the shivers and shakes That set in with alarming regularity These old bones won’t rattle forever I closed my eyes as I drove through her town I couldn’t bear to take it in

As Seldom Before

I wish I still had The photograph I took Of you sprawled back on your makeshift mattress Inebriated and shirtless The one that you made me get rid of I've forgotten what it feels like To share a bed With someone the opposite sex And same species

Cole Bauer

Shadows of palm trees

Tv show and movies They only show you the palm trees With rooftops of homes And skyscrapers up in the air With the ocean in the furthest distance Perfect paradise The reality of this heaven Is below in the shadows of beauty The dirt, shit, piss, puke Cops making arrests Hookers and homeless and thieves Pushers and drugs Booze and sex Murder and betrayal Both views of this golden state Have their qualities and character It's just sad that so many Don't know the truth And can't appreciate it Like us locals

Wilmington kittens

Tired And high Beyond belief I stood in the kitchen Smoking and falling asleep standing up And then it happened I heard the world's loudest And most street Cat fight From outside that window Somewhere Hissing Meows All long and drawn out And then it ended No winner declared Hope none were hurt or killed But The sound of hood never sounded so sweet To that Badass pussy

Benjamin Blake

Benjamin Blake was born in the July of 1985, and grew up in the small town of Eltham, New Zealand. Blake spent time in Southern California several years back, and fell in love with Los Angeles whilst he bummed around, drank, and smoked too many packs of Camel Lights. After spending a night camping out on the side of the 101 with a fellow hobo, he went and stayed at LAX for five days, where he lived like a king before flying back to New Zealand. He has had poetry and prose published all over the world in various magazines and journals, and is also the author of the poetry/prose collections, A Prayer for Late October, Southpaw Nights, Reciting Shakespeare with the Dead, and the novel, The Devil’s Children. He plans to make it back to L.A. as soon as he can. For the meantime, he will continue to share his bed with a schnauzerXpoodle named Danny.

Cole Bauer

Cole Bauer was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, America in 1983. He moved to San Diego, California in 1990 and was raised there until becoming an adult. He has also spent a few years in Houston, Texas with travel all over the United States. He's worked many jobs and has known many people. Combine all that inspirational history with an urge to create and you have a library of screenplays, short stories, and also, right here, poetry. From self-publishing to contests to submitting to publishers and studios, Cole Bauer brings a wide range of material with him as he tries to keep the creative juices flowing towards an audience who can relate. That group of Bukowski and Fante readers that need to make it through, like he did with the greats. He currently lives in Los Angeles in the golden state with his wife, Mia, and dog, Rupert.