December in New York City

December in New York City

Today’s whisper of icy, snowy weather
incites helpless nostalgia
bringing back the 80s and 90s
with the first of December
packing for our winter vacation
taking our daily
walk at New York Speed
to get in shape for the
pace of Gotham.

Early on the scheduled morning
we would lock up The Studio
(rolling a fresh coat of heavy-duty floor paint as we exited, so that it would be dry by the time we got back—it always was)
and board the Crescent City for an overnight train ride
to The Big Apple where we stayed
at the Chelsea Hotel some years
other years in an apartment in Murray Hill
not too far from the UN building.

Every day a dérive
Film Forum & Angelica
MOMA (on free day)
art & photography galleries
thrift shops
breakfast at Berger’s
browsing books at The Strand and the Gotham
hanging an exhibition of Max Waldman’s ballet photos at the studio of the Dennis Wayne Dancers where we met Eli Wallach
Murray’s for cheese
Rocco’s for cannoli
Tomkin’s Square Park
Staten Island Ferry
Central Park
The Pearl
Hunan Joy
Reade Theater at Lincoln Center for the annual Spanish Film Festival
the A Train out to Coney Island
plus whatever serendipitous thing that came along
and walking, walking, walking

This photograph captures one of those intensely weird moments in a public space late in the afternoon when the only person around was a woman taking a break from shopping on a cold stone bench surrounded by hundreds of twinkling lights on stark bare trees.

Photograph by D Young.

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