Im sitting on the 1 train headed south from the upper west side. Its 2:26 AM. There is a multicultural couple sitting across from me. The young man is crying. His over weight, pasty-white girlfriend has not taken her eyes off of him. I cannot see her face behind her red curls. I admit, my curiosity is morbid. Like a gentleman, I just dropped a cute young Canadian woman to her uptown apartment. Im proud of myself for being on this train right now. Kinda. There are purple cats fighting on the ceiling of an--- hold that thought, this is my stop. I still have another hour of train and a 20 blocks walk to get home. I need a bathroom. A guy just cut me off on the stairs with his crew. His New York Yankee grey and white pinstriped cotton shorts are down around his thighs. I see ass checks through plain white boxer shorts right in in front of my face. First thought; punch him behind the knee. In the tunnel between 14th Street stations their voices echo. Their voices are hoarse like old people who have smoked too much or young people who have spent the last three hours yelling at a horses. If I were ever to bet on horses I wouldnt yell or hoot or holler. When someone asked me if I picked a winner I would say, Someone always does. At the Queens bound F train platform I am the only person here. The sounds of NYC, a hundred feet below ground, are the hum of fluorescent lighting. The clamor of flat steel against something hard echoes out from the tunnel. Screeching subway breaks and the muffled, but loud, sounds of trains passing through platforms above, below, and adjacent but out of sight. The dirty, hot breeze mixing debris. On the train there are eleven people in this car with me. All tired. Its 2:55AM. Theres ten now. All of them are in the rat race, Im sure. The deodorant add on the wall is hashtagged #NYTOUGH. There are eleven tough rats on a track. Which one would you bet on? Will you shout, hoot, holler? I wake up at Parsons remembering I wanted to be home at midnight. I still have my phone, my wallet, my life: NY isnt so bad. Its 3:44AM, two stops and twenty blocks to a bathroom.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 12:29:36 +0000
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