Another Time

In New York City, everyone is texting.  Everyone is on the phone.  Everybody's wired.

I wandered streets yesterday.  Nothing happened to me that is worth telling.  I went to SoHo which is no longer anything, then to Chelsea to the gallery district where I saw art I wish I could forget.  I met Q for a beer in the West Village at the end of the day.  My legs were tired.  I'd been on them for about ten hours.  I took a new train for me, the V-line, that got me from West to East.  I bought some food at the local deli, came to the room and fell onto the bed.  Exhausted.  "Shower," I said.  "Go have a drink."  But I could feel myself falling into a deeper inertia.  I ate and watched "The Thomas Crown Affair" on television (I almost wrote "The Thomas Mann Affair"--wouldn't that be something) telling myself that this was a luxury, that I was in New York and felt no urgency.  Finally, dinner and the movie finished, I managed to shower and go downstairs for a drink.  There is a wonderful bar connected to the hotel, a dark wood, low light affair.  I had a twelve dollar scotch sitting alone, the bartender remembering me from the night before, the scotch working its way deep into my muscles, nerves, and bones.  And when it was done, I moved into the street.

At night, it is a tossup.  Do you want a companion, or do you wish to be alone?  Bars full of people drinking together, laughing.  You're a stranger then, perhaps a ghost.  The night is lovely, perfect, neither warm nor cool, velvety and dry.  You might wish for a companion to lean to and whisper or point.  With no options, I ambled alone, strolling, I told myself, wandering.  So much beauty, so much luxury.  Thin women and tall men, well-dressed, lovely on a Friday night.  What beauty.  I am no match for it tonight, poorly dressed for this part of town, able to walk but unable to stop though wanting another whiskey.  Around the blocks making a large rectangle.  It would be better tonight with company, I think, as I make the turn toward home.  It is late enough and I am tired.  I will go to my room and lie in my bed.  NYC on a Friday night.  Maybe another time.