The Dogs at Live Oak Beach, Santa Cruz by Alicia Ostriker
As if there could be a world
Of absolute innocence
In which we forget ourselves
The owners throw sticks
And half-bald tennis balls
Toward the surf
And the happy dogs leap after them
As if catapulted—
Black dogs, tan dogs,
Tubes of glorious muscle—
Pursuing pleasure
More than obedience
They race, skid to a halt in the wet sand,
Sometimes they'll plunge straight into
The foaming breakers
Like diving birds, letting the green turbulence
Toss them, until they snap and sink
Teeth into floating wood
Then bound back to their owners
Shining wet, with passionate speed
For nothing,
For absolutely nothing but joy. Art by Dina Dargo Recommended Listening: 24 - Ta-Ku Soulection Compilation (Joe Kay's playing at The Humming Tree tonight! Come for The Alipore Post Offline, chill, then we can all run to watch his set together. Ok?) Home Is Where You're Happy - Charles Manson Links of the Day: Zen Pencils: Vincent Van Gogh Neil Gaiman: Archive
How to be Perfectly Unhappy
A Collection of School Lunch Bags Upgraded to Artworks by a Dedicated Doodling Dad The Very Quiet Foreign Girls poetry group