[Almost every Broadway show was canceled,
but some casts serenaded patrons on the sidewalk.]
W 4 St. Wash Sq
I approach two ladies
Maybe in their 40s or 50s
One with a straw hat another with freckles and a messy bun,
holds herself like a bird
and like someone I love
Both very beautiful (interesting)
Before I get the chance to speak
They say “you look like young Meryl Streep
do you ever hear that??” I think
How odd
Meryl Streep is white.
blonde hair blue eyes very proper, no??
I laugh it off, ask where the hell the A train is
Or the C or the E
or the B D M F
What the fuck is happening???
Black out in New York, Times Square dark.
(Yesterday I have a discussion with Diana about how meta it is
that Baudrillard gave a lecture on hyperrealism
in a gold lamé suit in a casino in Nevada.
Is that deeply ironic and brilliant
or pretentious or just hilarious
and are these not all possibly overlapping?
Anyways I think wow
no Times Square
tourist hell on earth
but more to it actually
after all there is a lot of history there
beyond the I ❤️ NY keychains,
Robert Mapplethorpe silver factory level history
oi oi artist history there I go again
And how many layers of meta is it anyway
that it went dark and that’s the headline
NEW YORK POWER OUTAGE TIMES SQUARE GOES DARK
I hear Baudrillard laughing from his grave, he says I told you so)
How do I catch my train from Penn now?
We share an Uber
it takes us an hour to drive 5 blocks north
Penn station? Black. Dark. Nothing.
Hundreds of people walking in the streets
pouring out the doors, no trains running to Long Island New Jersey anywhere
What the fuck what the fuck
Guess I’m taking the bus?
They tell me about their kids
They are an actress and an IT specialist
Their kids are actors dancers doctors programmers
I hear baby stories first-NY-apartment stories
while sirens blare and everything is black only the moon is in the sky
By this point I am trying to keep my cool
but please may I interrupt this story for a hotspot oh god
I feel so young and so vulnerable
Like I do at some point every time I come here
Three hours before, Leo and I slap down a wad of cash
(the illusion of the 1$ bill)
at Buvette and I say what the fuck
I guess we’re adults
Now I just want to call my mom.
They say listen Newark at this time is pretty dangerous
just put on a mean face you look like you know what you’re doing
My face betrays me
They walk me through Port Authority
First floor ghost town
No electricity, bus comes in an hour.
I am trying to be strong
They see it in me and say
Hey so there is this chant we like to do
when we feel nervous, it’s a Buddhist chant
To feel calm
Everything feels like a coincidence, i just finished reading Siddhartha
(as if that means anything)
The absurdity breaks me out of my panic
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo
We hug goodbye it feels very warm
We are three C’s Carla Cara Corliss
Nothing feels like a coincidence is the subtitle of this scene.
I wait out the hour, more crazy shit happens, no more metaphors though.
Here are some:
ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN,
NEW YORK NEW YORK,
THE EXHILARATION IS PARTIALLY BLIND PANIC,
UPROARIOUSLY LAUGHING
& RUNNING FULL SPEED
INTO THE ARMS OF CHAOS
ABANDONING ANY ORDER OR LOGIC EVERYTHING YOU KNOW
HOW MANY MORE CLICHÉS CAN I STEEP MYSELF IN AT THIS POINT?
The thrill is swinging so wildly between bliss and fear
that the boundaries dissolve.
