erika staiti

Palm Trees 3


I was talking about Binghamton NY and thinking about California. Not thinking about California in Binghamton but thinking about California in California and talking about Binghamton. I am standing on Webster, thinking about those sandwiches we used to make at the CIW dining hall. I am walking to work on Henry Street in the snow and thinking about the homeless man who yelled something that I still remember. I am sitting in an apartment on Telegraph, thinking about what it felt like to have a car. I am writing an Art History paper late at night in Bartle Library remembering the person who walked past me earlier and smiled. I am walking on College Avenue staring at the weird trees and wondering if I love or hate them and wondering why I like people senselessly. I have eaten mushrooms for the first time and I’m walking across the bridge at the nature preserve on campus. I am sitting on the 57 looking out the dirty window. I am in my first poetry workshop, trying to write a brilliant poem. I am walking home from work and specifically take the road towards Webster so I can see the eight of them and try to understand why my body doesn’t lean and sway and tower over the neighborhood like they do, in an awkward mass of height.



erika lives in north oakland and often contemplates the line that divides oakland and berkeley as she walks through it many times a day.