SE
O 28th and Ankeny!
I heart your
ankle lace-up
booties
and piecey
top knot
your tortoiseshell
specs
undo me
every. time.
while waiting
for my grilled cheese
at the double-decker
grilled cheese bus.
You’re my Rad Summer.
You’re my Wanderlust.
Let’s watch
so many
last run movies
with vegan slices
and Sierra Nevadas!
Sweet lil East Burnside,
you’re more street
than I can handle
in your high-waisted
skinny jeans
and thrifted crop top.
Lord, help me!
I want to hook
my arm around
the peachy
sweep
of your waist
and walk together
toward
the Willamette’s
interweave of bridges.
Belmont.
Baby.
I want to borrow
your Brenda Walsh
flashback skirt
with the spray
of tiny garden roses
and ride like it’s 1962
on the handlebars
of your teal
vintage
Schwinn cruiser.
Let’s devour
diminutive cupcakes
by the dozen!
Mini red velvets
with cream cheese
icing
hot fudge
frosted vanilla
banana
chocolate chip
and salted-peanut
fat Elvis.
NE
Honey-love,
Alberta,
you’re my one
and only
instep.
My tooled
caramel leather
Frye cowboy boot
incarnate.
Let’s square dance
in the
stacked heel
street fair
of your parking lots
hollering
more macramé!
more day-glow!
we want
black velvet Hendrix!
North Mississippi
I barely
recognized you…
Those legs!
those breasts!
I came home from
college
and you grew
at least
several inches.
You trip me up!
I want to walk
your sexy
stretch of curb
and sidewalk
between
North Beech
and Failing.
Hey, girl.
Let’s craft
DIY terrariums
and sample
little spoonfuls
of honey-lavender
sea-salted
black licorice
from your artisan
Airstream food carts.
NW
O 6th and Everett!
I want to bask
in the pearly blue
of your wide
irises
and lofty galleries.
Let’s shop
all day for records
and get drunk
on boxed wine
openings!
We can hole up
all weekend
and watch
the sun come up
from your exposed brick
multiuse spaces.
O Lovejoy…
Love.
Joy.
You’re my rose
sorbetto everything!
Doesn’t matter
if we’re broke
as beggars,
we can live
on miniature
grass-fed burgers
and locally sourced
truffle fries!
I want to get lost
in your
endless stacks
and gather
camellia petals
with you
at the Lan Su
classical gardens.
Let’s recite
Eliot in absurd voices
over cups
of organic
Buenavista Chemex!
SW
Park and Madison!
Let’s play hide
and seek
near your bronze
equestrian likeness
of the 26th president.
We can skip
right over Roosevelt
and Lincoln
past Taylor
and Morrison
and run naked
together
in the baby
animal fountains.
Your lanes
are so generous!
I’m madly in love
with your red
yellow
green and blue
arteries
and your sparkly
little bus stops.
O oh oh,
I want to nibble
all night
on your tiny
little earlobes…
Brandi Katherine Herrera holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University, and is the author of the chapbook “the specificity of early spring shadows” (Bedouin Books, 2013).
Photo by author
