Monday did
       what Mondays do.

First grooming for Orca.

Goodbye,
        puppy eye crusties.

Then back to 325 Paces,
     where Lily rolled in,
     Orca's pal for the week,
     while her momma chased beach time

     down Panama City way.

By evening,
   you were the question mark.

Not feeling so hot.

All day.

The kind of text
    that makes a whole plan
         wobble on its little legs.

I thought maybe
      the night was done
          before it got to be a night.

Then tip-off got close.

Knicks and Spurs.

Game three.

New York up two
    after stealing both
         in San Antonio.

And there you were,
           somehow,
         still you.

“Should I bring Coal?”

Absolutely.

Bring Coal.

Bring yourself.

Bring whatever version of Monday
               can still make it
               through this rain.

Because the patio was perfect.

Light crowd.

Wet air.

All-day rain
        doing that soft little miracle
        other people call weather

        but I call: magic sky water.

Mojave kid.

Vallarta years.

I still can’t get enough
            of the thing
         I spent so long
wishing the sky would do.

We watched the first half
        from Irby’s patio
        with all the pups
    tucked into the edges
              of the game.

Then Taco Bell to the door.

The walk across to 325,
                  food,
                 couch,
                  dogs.

Then apparently
     basketball happened
     somewhere in the room.

I know this
  because you stayed awake
  like a professional
  and woke me

  one minute from the final whistle.

Spurs pulled it off.

Clawed one back.

Made it look
        like a competition again.

Good.

And after all that,
    after the rain,
    after the pups,
    after the Taco Bell,
    after the quarter I absolutely didn’t witness…

    you left the way you always do.

Clean.

Easy.

One quick hug
    that somehow
    doesn’t make a production

    of being exactly what I needed.

Perfect Monday.

Even the part I slept through.

Maybe… especially the part I slept through.