on the roof, a rooster shreds
wind like a grind rail
at the skate park. Bad bitch.
He ollies east-west until
all that wind blows out from under him
and I realize I have been staring
too long at the neighbor’s house
for someone out walking their dog
in the rain. I am a lightning rod
for gossip, the blade of light
at a coffee table of darkness.
I don’t need Mrs. Wallace to drop her curtain
and pick up the chunk of landline
she keeps on the side table, smile, and
whip back around, even if the rooster
is rocking a sick double 900.
Cassady O’Reilly-Hahn is a poet with an MA from Claremont Graduate University. He is a managing editor for Foothill: A Poetry Journal and a Scripting Editor at Deluxe, a company that localizes TV and Film. Cassady writes Haiku for his Instagram @cassady_orha. He currently resides in Redlands, California.