Archive | City Matters

Subway Saturninas

Three stroppy females on the subway tonight: 1. A woman standing, unsupported, in the midst of the crowded moving car, blithely reading The Wisdom of Insecurity as she sways into everyone around her. There’s such a thing as overkill, doll. 2. A woman wearing three pink bows in her hair, shoving people out of her way and stepping on feet as she enters the train. Why do the meanest broads always wear bows? 3. Me, shaming a manspreader into closing his legs enough to make room for me to sit, then out-manspreading him so outrageously that he’s forced to close his legs entirely. Good thing I wore pants today! Feminist in the streets, liberationist in the sheets.

The Shadow of Your Smile

I appreciate the creative incubation tank proffered by winter, I really do, but now that it’s officially March I find myself eying the floral dresses in my closet with a longing I usually reserve for chocolate-lemon tarts, Helena Rubenstein’s jewels, and certain exes who just aren’t good for me. Yesterday it snowed yet again, and to console myself I bought some tulips buds; their nascence matched my mood. Today they popped: yellow blooms with slender red stripes, such a pretty surprise. I love them ardently, and as I work at my desk, keep stealing glances of these proud little ambassadors of a spring that’s bound to arrive someday, regardless of the blizzard that threatens to arrive later this week. Who can believe such doomsday predictions anyway? Today at least it promises to reach 40 degrees and the sun is shining with all her might. I am cheering her on. “Only God, my dear/ Could love you for yourself alone/ And not your yellow hair.”

Moon Void of Crash

I was taking one of my long flaneuzy strolls around the neighborhood yesterday when a pickup truck stopped to let me cross the street. Just as I stepped off the curb, a big rig slammed the pickup about two feet from my face. And just as I jumped out of the way, a third truck slammed into the second, pushing it right where I’d stood the second before. We all froze for a second–did that really happen?!? Then the drivers sprang out of their vehicles and began bellowing in three different languages while other cars started honking like banchees. I dusted myself off, found my hat which had flown off in the kerfuffle, and ducked into a coffee shop. Yes, my americano was delicious, and, yes, moon was void of course. Of course.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy