when I hear the word ‘yinz’

I think of Pittsburgh and its terrible beauty
and the man who towed my car for cheap
because it was in such shit shape

his dirty callused hands
moving papers off the passenger seat
and 8 walkie-talkies on the dash
picking up police radio frequencies

I think of the city
and its tough love

its wide open arms
that come with a lecture
and the man who told me
I was driving the wrong way on bouquet street

he said “you’re going to get fucking arrested”
he said “I don’t want you getting hurt”

Winner of the Gerald Stern poetry prize and the Joan Didion nonfiction award, Caitlin Cruser lives and writes in Western Pennsylvania. She is a Creative and Professional Writing major at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.