February 14th

by Sierra Kruse

On a pink and good day Anna leaves me
and the espresso and the customers
all angry over hot empanadas
but returns with Arizona Iced Teas.
Tall Aluminum lemon-coated cans.
She giggles Happy Valentines to you.
She is seventeen gifting girlhood love
that tastes like growing up in the city.
Like Anna, these cans dip into alleys,
call an uber without telling their mom,
talk back to teachers, and show up to work
in the bite of winter with a tee shirt.
Anna huffs her own dripping nose, saying
Damn Sierra hell has frozen over.

Sierra Kruse (she/her) is a poet and performer from Portland, OR. Currently, she studies at Columbia College Chicago. In her poetry, Sierra writes about sadness, girls, and summertime. Her work has appeared in Pest Control, The Mid- Atlantic Print Council, and Stone of Madness. Find her @sierras.hands on Instagram.

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