BRITTANY ACKERMAN

Worship Your City

Spanish River Boulevard

shoots straight up the middle

and I sip sparkling water,

listening to the fizzle

coming from the center

console.  I brake, it shakes. 

Bubbles bump into one

another.  I’ve always preferred

side streets, although I can see

the highway from here,

passing over the bustling

colored metal squares

below, before the library

and the park, before

Military, before Jog turns

into Powerline, before you

have to pick a direction to turn

when the road runs out.

Boca Raton, the rat’s mouth as

they say, the kids who make

fun of your town, the way

you lace your sneakers, how

the pool party queens pad

their bikini tops with socks

or wads of tissue paper.

Palm trees line every entrance,

all the roads and highways

like great guards at the gate,

you want to know what it’s like

to live in perpetual summer,

in our eternal sunshine state,

how we slow ourselves in this

charming coastal city

resting on the shore.

Brittany Ackerman is a second year MFA candidate in creative nonfiction at Florida Atlantic University.  She recently visited the Magic Castle in Los Angeles, CA, and is seriously considering giving up writing for pursuing a life as a magician.