Shiver

I was riding
my bike back
from a party in West Oakland.
The sky looked like the future -
gray green and shivering with secured WiFi signals.

I swear I saw a guy with two dogs
and the dogs were pulling
a shopping cart full of empty cans
and crack dreams.

There was a kind of lazy sexuality
to the whole bike ride.
I felt like everyone would find love
after the next trip to the liquor store.
But if they failed to
another night alone would be easier,
than trying to get home from some new lover's house
in El Cerito or Albany or Fruitvale.