SANTA CRUZ PALMS // PHOTO BY AUThor

Santa Cruz Again

My mother use to take me there as a girl

Take us to the Boardwalk to get a wristband

So we could ride rides all day

While she laid near the shore reading a book under the sun

Then, my sister, who loved the ocean more than anyone I had met used to take me to go camping on the beach, boogie boarding, riding waves and getting sand stuck to our legs

At 16, we were driving highway 17 almost once a week in the summer. Smoking cigarettes with transient boys passing through town.

At 19, we were drinking tall cans on the way up to the Boardwalk. It was like being a kid again, but this time with shitty beer with a nice buzz. Rode the rides and laughed until we cried. J and I got food poisoning from the funnel cake the next morning. S laughs us off, and says we were hungover. J laughs back,

I don’t throw up over a couple of tall cans, dude.

At 21, we took an afternoon girls trip to downtown and had fun bar hopping. It was that day I promised myself,

I’d live here one day. I will live here one day.

Still, at 21, I met a man I fell in love with. But, real love. But I had never been in love before — so you know. Take…