John Zheng

Territorial Claim

A black bulldog trots to a trashcan in the back alley and lifts its right hind leg to pee. An almost invisible steam drifts a second in the slanting sunlight. A German shepherd and a Golden Retriever bark loudly behind my neighbor’s wire fence. The bulldog, unconcerned, trots on.

ghost town churchyard –
headstones looming
in high weeds

overhead
crows circling