An Oakland night

shimmies down daylight’s throat

as I anchor my ten-pound terrier

Sienna to a brown leash.

Out the door on Pleasant

Valley Ave, we amble 

on cracked concrete, concrete 

Uncle Kevin poured

ten springs ago

sliced between his whiskey and smoking

consumption.

We brisk through two crosswalks 

and swing onto Piedmont Ave.

Within sprinting distance,

there’s Piedmont Cafe

where Kevin slipped inside

for coffee and a pancake stack

after he tossed his smoke to the curb.

While Sienna’s alabaster fur 

absorbs a wind shove,

we lock sight before the locked gate

of Mountain View Cemetery.

Seven years on, 

Kev is consumed in soil.

On an incline, grass pumps up

over his collapsed

heartbeat.

Published in Monetized Happiness (American Poetry Systems, 2025)