45th Street

Glancing out my window across 45th Street

A stuffed bulldog stands stiffly on a little wooden platform with wheels

Like something from Little Lord Fauntleroy’s toy box

Or painted perhaps into the foreground of a Van Dyck family portrait

The dog steps off the platform –

It’s a skateboard –

He pees with an elegantly raised back leg and perfect aim

Spraying the hubcap of the parked car with his lordship’s scent and then

Resuming his royal stance upon the open carriage

His servant, a shaggy young man glued to his hand held glowing rectangle

Continues to pull him down the street.