A Rottweiler rode a Harley-Davison motorcycle on the 101 freeway headed to Downtown LA. It didn’t bother to use the turn signal as it rode in the sunlight. It smoked a cigarette. The Rottweiler spit into the wind. It arrived downtown, parked within 15 ft. of a fire hydrant, and then urinated. The Rottweiler was philosophically indifferent, yet still relieved to be downtown, next to all the grandiose buildings. Also, the Rottweiler’s favorite band, The Sandcastle Destroyers, were set to play a free concert in Pershing Square. The Rottweiler joined the crowd in an impromptu mosh-pit. Tragically, the Rottweiler died just as the concert reached its climax. A Frisbee hit the Rottweiler on the head and it was pronounced dead on the scene. A local high school band played a touching tribute song for the Rottweiler as its body was carried away to the coroner’s office. It was just 14 years old, in dog years. Rest in peace, free-spirit Rottweiler.
About the Author Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of a chapbook of prose poems: The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) and the forthcoming, Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024). His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, The Common, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Poetry, Sixth Finch, The Southern Review, Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He teaches generative workshops for Litro Magazine, Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshops, The Writer’s Center, Beyond Baroque, and elsewhere. He serves as a Poetry Mentor in The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program. About the Artist Christina Benavides is a self-taught artist, with an aficionado in storytelling, she decided to mix her hobby with her passion to become an independent comic writer and illustrator. Her first run was with my community college’s newspaper, ‘The Wright Times’, where she wrote and illustrated “Probable Enemies”. A monthly gag comic about a boy genius who spends his free time pestering the city’s local superhero. Then she branched into making the webcomic series “The Tricksters Abreast Tales”, an urban fantasy that follows a girl befriending a half trickster and two governmental agents who deal with paranormal-based cases. She also sell prints at conventions, recently branched to making Zines, and dabble in animation.
