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Erik T. Johnson: Proser - Poet - Performer

Waiting for  a friend in NYC: Real-Time Observations

7/5/2018

1 Comment

 
July 1, 2018: 

Sweltering on a 5th Avenue bench beneath the shadowy coppice of Central Park trees, waiting for a friend who will be 1 hour late...a fully clothed man is doing pushups on the other side of 5th Avenue. In the nuclear meltdown sunlight. Vigorously. Impressive as it is ... insane? Who am I to judge. I've done stupider things...North to South, men wearing cargo shorts walk by topless. Some in breathtakingly athletic shape; most beer-bellied to the point of prepartum imitation. The women are fully dressed without exception. A colorblind bee inspects my gray jeans with pollinating interest...the cry of a bluebird--there it is, not 10 feet away. I love bluebirds because I am no good at identifying birdcalls, except bluejays and crows. Hymn....nope, no crows about. This moment as sound montage: the high, happy pitches of tourist girl-children singing, sluggish footsteps of all types on hexagonal paving stones, perpetual car traffic like the desiccated howl of sandstorming winds. And all this time, the chirping of I can't count how many birds that I cannot name. Indeed, I don't even know what to call the totality of these experiences. That seems a good enough reason to stop recording them.
1 Comment
Dominipino link
2/13/2024 04:20:57 pm

Heello mate great blog

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"They all think I'm mad! My ideas crazy! Well . . . it would do well for them to remember they laughed at Groucho Marx, too!" 
            --Louis-Ferdinand Céline
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