At Katy’s – Leland Seese
At Katy's — By Leland Seese Every dog is known by name, knows the crumbs across the floor are for the taking. There will never be a Katy’s II or Katy’s East. Katy keeps it…
At Katy's
Leland Seese
Every dog is known by name,
knows the crumbs
across the floor are for the taking.
There will never be a Katy’s II
or Katy’s East. Katy keeps it local
at 20th and Union. Her business model
is “Just be miraculous.” It’s warm
in winter, cool in summer, capacious
though comprising three small tables.
Her secret is the light that shines
behind her bright brown eyes,
a genuine It’s great to know you, friend!
Coffee, breakfast sandwiches, hugs,
and laughter to a soundtrack called
Whatever the Barista on This Shift
Might Need to Feel Today.
If you drive a Maserati, don’t stride in
as if you own the place.
You can wait your turn behind the man
who spent the night curled in a doorway
cocooned in fentanyl.
Katy knows that guy by name,
never charges for a BLT and joe.
You be a regular like all the other dogs.
At Katy’s by Leland Seese was originally published in the Summer 2025 issue of the SDL Review, available in print on our website and on Amazon. Available in ebook form on Kindle — free with Kindle Unlimited
Meet Leland Seese
Leland Seese lives in Seattle, Washington. His poems appear in Frontier Poetry, The Chestnut Review, RHINO, The Stonecoast Review, and many other journals.
Read more Leland Seese poetry in The SDL Review — Summer 2025
From his website:
The poems gathered here comprise efforts to express a lifelong fascination with story, and a hope of aligning formal theological training with a number of mystical experiences. I locate them in the events of my life as a member of families intact and dispersed, foster, adoptive, and biological; as an intrepid fan of baseball; and as one who catches glimpses of the numinous in all these things.
My wife and I, and our six children, live in Seattle.
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