American Dream

Docks, Stars and Horseshoes

I sit on the docks looking out at the slowly setting sun.  I try and focus, just me and my music.  But around me are so many people trying to do the same thing: watch the sunset in peace.  Why can't I watch the sunset in peace?  My foot start tapping, my fingers drumming to the beat of an off beaten tune.    I do the thing everyone does when they watch a sunset, I think  I think hard.  I think softly.  I think far.  I think near.  Splashing the Hudson waters with my feet I think about where I was and where I am.  What defines me?  When am I truly happy?  For right now, I am truly happy on this dock, right here, right now, isn't that enough?

Worn Faces, tired spaces.

Walking around this city, I like to look at all the people passing by, and with each day it becomes easier to detect each type of person.  You can tell by their clothes, how they walk, and how they interact with other people.  Every country has different mannerisms that can be associated with them.  You know who is American and who is not.  Who is Italian and who is not.  And so on.  I think that if you spend enough time watching, you can really see some interesting things about how cultures interact with eachother.

Something that has been bothering me for a while has been the travelers that live on the streets here.  Poverty is nothing new to me or new to the world, and poverty exists in every country.  But what I have been noticing more as I have grown up into adulthood is how poverty is treated. I had very little knowledge of what was going on in the world around me until I left the country and really looked at what was going on.