Bedtime. I lie on my back in a bedroom that is not mine, balancing a Mary Oliver poetry collection on my bent legs. Beside me, my neighbor’s dog watches, eyes relaxed, while I sift through the pages. I land on “The Dog Has Run Off Again” and begin to read aloud. She gently sniffs the air in approval, then more eagerly, as if the scent of wet earth from the poem had drifted into the room. Encouraged, I continue reading. When I end, she licks her lips, and I notice the crumbs of my nighttime snack on my flannel pajamas.
Jackeline Fernandes is a writer from Port Washington, New York, who enjoys poetry, dogs, and reading poetry to dogs around her neighborhood.