the back burner

graffiti #5 and #6

that sinking feeling

i just realized my passport is dusty. why is it dusty, i ask?

because i haven't used it in nearly a month.

this should not be. i feel... anxious.

train station

...i've passed through this particular station a lot in the last 3 years. good conversations. strange journeys begun AND concluded, here. how nice. how weird.

cafe

Since everything's related to coffee these days, I may as well let you know that I'm working at a cafe this week. They're short-staffed as it is, but this week their workers are out of town. Since they cater in part to homeless and illeagal populations, it's important that they have a consistent schedule. They didn't want to close for a whole week, so I stepped in.

Right now we're not open. 20 minutes to showtime. I started making coffee at about 4 in a huge barrel-style, 45-cup coffee maker. Antonio is here to help me, along with his three girls. We put up folding garden tables and covered them with plastic tablecloths. There are 6 of them, each with 4 folding chairs. There are also chips, cookies, and old chocolate that various vendors donate to this operation.

Along one wall are 5 old pcs, with internet access. There's a raggedy clipboard by the door where people can sign up for computer slots. I have the distinct pleasure of stirring up all the internet-junkies every 20 minutes to make spaces for people who have been waiting.

People come alone sometimes, but more often in twos and threes. After a cup of coffee and an elaborate greeting procedure where they greet all the other guests, most people settle down to read religious literature, to play a game of chess, or to start quietly heckling whoever's using their favorite computer. Christian music (all kinds, as I'm sure you can imagine) drones in the background. Right now Antonio has Mary Mary on, and I'm glad. It could definitely be worse- and probably will be.

Working here full-time would mean taking on some philosophical differences with other believers, but coming around occasionally to get the latest news on the city is just right for me. It doesn't hold a candle to j.krue's new job wearing a green apron, of course, but it's nice in it's own way.

breakfast

I'm eating eggs with carrots. And mushrooms and onions.

And thinking of Krista and Mike.

Hope all is well in Chattanooga.

Quote of the Day

The Taking

In the morning on my way to the subway
I pass disemboweled trash bags
at the curb, in front of the big building
down the block. You can tell how people dug things out
overnight by street light, or in the drizzle-lit dawn,
carrying some away, but others only a certain
distance — maybe ten steps, maybe fifty yards — before
deciding upon inspection that after all they
were not worth the taking. A child's stained pink sweatshirt hung
neatly on a fence, a rusty saucepan like a hat
on a hydrant, a bundle of old magazines
rippled by the damp on the hood of a parked car —
each item taken carefully and as carefully
dismissed, for reasons known only to those who disappear.

Poem: "The Taking" by Anne Pierson Wiese, from Floating City: Poems. © Louisiana State University Press. Reprinted with permission.

le printemps arrive