August 18, 2001
It’s so reassuring to be reassured. One of the most reassuring things one can do on a Friday summer night in Manhattan, when you have been left behind on the island with all the others who haven’t gone to places with more verdure or ocean or both, is to take yourself to the back of the Corner Bistro and have a burger with fries. It was soothing after an evening that seemed to be intent on presenting Manhattan in horror mode. A homeless man wheeling his supermarket trolley, suitcase to his life, had something hanging over his shoulder or hugging his neck. As I looked again it appeared to be a child, the legs dangling down his chest, the head facing downward over his shoulder. Or was it a chimpanzee dressed in a baseball outfit? Whatever it was it was not living. The teenage girls at the front of the bus, all three with cell phones and braces, are staring too. As the bus slows for a stop I can look again: perhaps he has fashioned this dead humanoid leech out of stuffed items of clothing.
The beautiful one-legged woman in the shower at the gym, fresh from the pool, lopsided mermaid.
The homeless man begging through a cab window with a hand that has had all of its digits ripped off.
And I can go and have a burger and be reassured? Shameful but true.
a lopsided mermaid ?
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It’s so reassuring to be reassured. One of the most reassuring things one can do on a Friday summer night in Manhattan, when you have been left behind on the island with all the others who haven’t gone to places with more verdure or ocean or both, is to take yourself to the back of the Corner Bistro and have a burger with fries. It was soothing after an evening that seemed to be intent on presenting Manhattan in horror mode. A homeless man wheeling his supermarket trolley, suitcase to his life, had something hanging over his shoulder or hugging his neck. As I looked again it appeared to be a child, the legs dangling down his chest, the head facing downward over his shoulder. Or was it a chimpanzee dressed in a baseball outfit? Whatever it was it was not living. The teenage girls at the front of the bus, all three with cell phones and braces, are staring too. As the bus slows for a stop I can look again: perhaps he has fashioned this dead humanoid leech out of stuffed items of clothing.
The beautiful one-legged woman in the shower at the gym, fresh from the pool, lopsided mermaid.
The homeless man begging through a cab window with a hand that has had all of its digits ripped off.
And I can go and have a burger and be reassured? Shameful but true.
- rachael 8-18-2001 6:22 pm
a lopsided mermaid ?
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