Look Out! for Stampeding Rain
After a string of in-heat dog days, the sky unlatches their cloud gate, lets loose a raining kennel of cats and dogs clawing my face raw. I sprint through this […]
A Feathered Divide
Through my living room window, I spot a peacock resident prowling Occidental and 61st Street yet they don’t pay a mortgage or buy a $7 mocha latte. I must […]
I Hear Oakland Speaking
We walk in May Day sunlight where Menace barks at a bulldog chained behind a fence at the bent junction of Market and 35th. I pet my twelve-year-old poodle mix. […]
The Monarch of Metamorphosis
I lie on my queen bed or do I lay with my queen? Does my bedroom monarch lay or lie on me? As a monarch butterfly perches on my kingly […]
Fatherhood Growing
The first time I lied to our daughter, I declared “you can do whatever a man does.” Words shot out like a pressurized sprinkler onto her freshly formed frame. The […]
Grocery Store Slaughter
In a grocery storeoff Tenderloin Road,a venison strutsto the meat display displayed like a photoshootmodel hungryfor a juicy tenderloin. Wait. Does a venison or deer strut? I got it. Behind […]
You Step into an Oakland Day
On a neighborhood sidewalk cracked by finger roots, I spot you through the MLK Café window where your feet hook into MLK Way down the block from Marcus Books. […]
In the Heart
In the Heart and Vascular Center waiting room, a Malaysian woman from Reno with a face filled with stories throws a nod my way. “What brings you here?” “My […]
A Pushy Oakland Wind Almost Pushed Me
into a dead raccoon sprawled over a dying oak tree’s finger roots wrapping around feral decomposition at 26th & Telegraph 2 blocks from where I hunt down my dreams on […]
Concrete and Petroleum through the Centuries
The 21st Century is being built on 20th-century concrete. Concrete cracks like my sandy-colored face under a Global Warming sun. I transverse down Madison Street carrying a plastic […]