DMV SURF SESSION

It was mid-summer in southern California. I was at the local DMV. I needed fresh air. I drank from a drippy spout of water at the rusty fountain. I fell asleep at my seat in the DMV because there was a two-hour wait. When I woke: I was in the Pacific Ocean surfing with my friends. Just kidding, I don’t have any friends. But there were exquisite sea creatures present. Seagulls, dolphins and star fish. I surfed like an autumn leaf in the wind until sunset. When I finished, I dried off and fell asleep on the cool sand. Later, I woke up back amidst the bureaucracy of the DMV. It was finally my turn, though. I was there to get my yearly license plate sticker. “B-136,” the teller said. “That’s me!” I said, relieved, as I jumped out of my seat.

Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024) and The Parachutist (Sundress Publications, 2025). His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, Yale Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He teaches generative workshops for Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshops, and elsewhere. He serves as a Poetry Mentor in The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program.