In
my dreams, New York is a complex maze of train tracks, subways, and
boardwalks.
There's
a barge as long as the bay is wide.
There
are two buildings rising up with smoke and the fear of that year
comes into their eyes.
That
bus full of kids loads back up to leave the competition to bring them
all back to their lives of poverty.
They're
forced to end with the one thing they are good at left unfinished and
unknown because of some one person's actions.
The
boy who is the best goes home to his mother, rides the train back to
his neighborhood,
Receives
a free frozen lemonade from a man he doesn't recognize, but the man
sure knows him and his family.
He
is an angel sent to care for and protect them.
The
angel climbs into the maze of rebar and steel, looking down on nooks
and crannies where the homeless men may live.
I
think he's taking me to see one of his beloved, but instead we look
upon the set of a movie right where we've stopped.
He
is a cameraman, but the tracks above us are too loud and they shake,
and the extras in the movie point to a sign it says, “No Camera A.”
So
we begin to climb back down, tiny tight little spaces where only my
soul can go and not my body.
I
awake so slowly with the vivd pictures on my eyes and remember that
reality is not so beautiful.