See, there isn’t just
the guy in white
there is another New York mystery guy
too
The guy with the suit-cases
.

His base is Houston street
between Avenue A and B
Sometimes he has only
5 suitcases,
all locked up together in a pile
Sometimes the whole block
has little stations of suitcases
with anything from 5 – 15 suitcases
placed in different parts of the block

All with locks

…and he is somewhere near by
having this constant conversation
with somebody invisible

He sounds angry and concerned

You might have seen him
He is maybe around 35
White
A little heavy.

Around 11pm,
he sometimes
goes through the trash
from Union Market.
There is left-over sushi there
In nice packages

He sits on the steps
near his suitcases
and eats his sushi
talking to the air

But I still wonder …
those suitcases –

where do they come from?

These days
when the world
seem to fall apart
I am embarrassed
and a little ashamed
to admit
that since I was 25
I’ve been desiring
a Kelly
or a
Berkin bag

A real …..

It will never happen

Takahashi
is my favorite sushi place
near where I live
It’s on Avenue A
If you go
go by yourself
or just with one more person
and get seats at the counter
in front of the chefs
Jack will become
your best friend
And maybe
when you’ve been coming a few times
He might make you a special

A Jack special

Not much text
needed here
I
love
these
boys

It was an evening of time travel
walking around squinting
like at a high school reunion
trying to see the young person
in the old person in front of you
But better
At a high school reunion
you have nothing in common
with anyone
At this reunion
I felt as if anyone
who were still alive
got it

And then I went home
and opened the book
and there I was
a very young Ingrid
with Mel
behind Richard’s hand
waiting to get in

If you were not there – get the book
If you were there – and are still alive
Get it and enjoy being back.

I never went to Queens.
Ever
in the old days.
Never.
Queens???

Not until 2013
when we got lost
on our way to Kristofer’s photo exhibit

and met these guys.
I was allowed on one of their bikes
Would not ever happen
with their Manhattan colleagues
The once on 3^rd street

Now I’ve been twice to the Korean bathFour times to basements in Flushing to eat sublime Chinese

And then recently when I took the F-train to Forest Hills to visit Odella. On the way there, a lady sitting next to me opened a fancy box that contained a huge expensive looking pastry with fresh berries on top. She ate it all by herself with pleasure on a crowded F-train. On the way back to Manhattan a female clown in full costume and makeup got on at the Roosevelt Ave stop. She put on her glasses and then quietly read something on her phone

And all this happened in Queens

One morning my husband saw
a couple having sex on a roof
while he was in the shower at 6am

I once saw a man gardening nude in the garden below us.

Could it be that a big city
makes you feel more invisible
than you do in a small town.

He wanders and wanders and wanders
back and forth.
I see him on Houston Street
or Delancey
Sometime I see him moving the trash-can
from one side of the street-corner
to the other
and then,
he moves it back again

He is always in white
clean, crips white

He never talks,
until the other day
out of the blue
he asked me for a quarter
and then said thanks
when I handed
him a dollar.

I need my quarters for the laundry.

Somebody said he lives on Orchard Street
He is one of those
New York mysteries.

I am starting this blog with a mood-photo from a walk home one summer evening with my husband Johan and my friend Kris who I went to high-school with. All three with our roots in Stockholm but now re-planted since decades on the lower east side of Manhattan.

This blog will not be much text. More like just photos and little reflections from what I see in my daily life here and maybe some recommendations of really great dive-bars and neighborhood restaurants.