A long time ago
I lived with a man
who was a teacher
at an art school
on 23rd street

He had a new student
who said she had a part
in a new film.

We didn’t know this film
but went to see it
expecting to see her being
and extra
or a waitress
or someone getting out of a taxi
or somebody’s friend’s friend

Something small

But this student
at that art school
on 23rd street

she was the star of the film

Never, ever just presume
anything.

And –
that’s all I have to say about that !

Pig and Khao
In an area that is exploding
with new restaurants
Pig and Khao is one of
the very few restaurants
that feel like it is in keep with
what the neighborhood once was

For more than a hundred years
these streets were home to
different streams of immigrants

Streets that during the 1980s
were occupied by crime,
are now so gentrified
you do not recognize them

except for Pig and Khao
It fits in

It’s on Clinton Street
The Chef is Leah
The food Filipino-Thai inspired

Always sit at the counter
and watch
the kitchen
at work
So good

And the music in the kitchen
is always
old school hip hop
by the way

So I had 3 separate
Russian guys
trying to pick me up
today at Brighton Beach
near Coney Island

The first one came up to me
with his phone to his ear
and asked
if I just tried to call him

???
(Was that a good pick-up line you think?)

The second said he worked
For the Russian government
And that he recognized me (?)
and then asked me if my husband
was Russian

He was disappointed when I said
he was Swedish
He left with a ”my bad luck”

The third just said something
In Russian
I stared at him and
looked down at my book.
See – I had taken the subway
to the beach to enjoy
the last late-summer temperature,
and to be by myself and re-visit
my youth by reading “The Mudd Club”

Meaning that every time
one of those three guys
came up to me and
wanted my attention
I looked up from the book
And – since I was in my
20-year-old mind –
I got very confused to see
a 55+ Russian man
wanting to talk to me

As this never happen to me
in my usual neighborhoods
I wonder if I should consider
this experience
a compliment
or an insult?

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.