September 26, 2022 - “Everyone was up here celebrating everything”

We ran through the rumbling city Saturday mornings
in September. We met at 23rd & Tenth Avenue, outside
the gallery before the rain and after two cappuccinos.
The M14 bus kept going west to east then east to west,
river to river to river, then river again. We kept going
to bars with juke boxes & putting quarters in the machines
after three whiskeys, dancing, stepping outside for cigarettes,
then rushing back in again for another round, neat. Everyone
was up here celebrating everything. September afternoons
we’d watch black & white films in Aubrey’s loft as the sun
would fall from the sky. When the first orange light across
the way would flicker, we’d huddle on her fire escape & together
we’d feel those first few cold breezes of fall. Sundays we’d cycle
over to the square, west Fifty-fifth & Seventh Avenue –––
then west, still west, we’d reach the Hudson and look out over
the water, shining beneath the Manhattan moon: one long silence,
a few thoughts about back home, a breath, then we’d go again.