carmine st / downing st / 3rd st / 4th st / greenwich ave

5.07 miles

3rd street was really such a good street. a street filled with serendipity. i walked with cher, my most patient walking buddy. it began to pour as we ducked into fay da bakery (a favorite, but i’d never been to this location). we munched on buns and cheap coffee in the corner just until the skies cleared up.

later, as it began to come down again, we stopped into aicon gallery, wandering around the thought provoking art of saad qureshi and nataraj sharma. the gallery specializes in south asian art, unexpected and exciting. but what cemented this gallery as a favorite was its public restroom.

farther east, karma bookstore, a publisher as well, with art books and strange things galore, and also an author/photographer in the flesh, danny lyon.

other sights included: an elegant woman on the train with a paper subway map, struggling, helped by multiple people in the car; an unmasked family of ten touring the city on the subway; a child crying; a crowd gathering around a basketball game; more queer couples, more joyful, than usual; a lady biking with no hands, swerving, delighting; dominoes being laid strategically; a weeping willow; newspapers tucked into a gate; a painter painting; a tie dyed biker; ‘practice safe sex’ in large print on a man’s t-shirt; pride braids; drag queen through a crowd; another paper map, this time held by a man on the sidewalk.

pride in new york city is joyful, and it is a joy to be a witness.

a lady at a print store was rather rude. cher and i discussed a new consciousness of the color of our skin over the past year. my awareness is heightened in the new normalcy of normal. a note after brief forays into brooklyn and queens recently, or even outside of the more touristy parts of the city: there are more masks outside of manhattan, opposite to how the pandemic began. things move strangely.

the past couple of days make me melancholy in anticipation of leaving this city. this summer feels like a miracle. i got to meet and listen to the music of a favorite artist yesterday, and the high of live music is gold in my veins. even work, with younger students fresh in the lab and learning to do research, is cheerful.

my brain becomes more used to the idea of california, of sun,

gratitude sinks in

but as i note down minute observations that i hope may trigger a memory
a year from now,

i wish each walk, each street,
was more cemented in my brain

but i forget too easily

left only with a fog of familiarity
the next time i am here.