a puff of smoke

it's monday afternoon, about 3 o'clock, i hop on the f train, transfer to the a, transfer to the 5 and get off at bowling green. (this sounds tedious, but it's really quick, actually) this is battery park, and awfully familiar. i am conquering the financial district today, but i guess i didn't realize that i had been to battery park before. i am immediately excited because the blossoms on the trees are oh so beautiful, and they weren't here when i was here last, and it was also dark then. not today. today is a bright and sunny, blue sky, warm enough to take off my sweater day.

tourists are promenading along the promenade, and i feel like one of them, because i'm wearing tennis shoes with jeans. ( a new yorker would never wear such a get-up.) i'm also carrying the columbia guide to new york 2007.... and not working on a monday. (so when exactly do i stop being a tourist)

(an unnamed couple having a moment)

i wander for a while, sit down, and then i stand up and decide it's time to get financial already! i walk to wall street, where it seems like everyone and their hedge fund manager is outside smoking a cigarette, i mean really, i didn't stop to take pictures of the new york stock exchange because i thought i'd be enveloped in a puff of smoke. get me outta here! cough!

i pop into a borders to sit down for a minute and put a mailing address on a birthday card. i'm back out and i fall in line with the suits that were just released for the day, and i'm looking for a mailbox. i figure i'll find one if i just fall in line... and then there it is... as plain as day...not a mailbox - ground zero.

i'll be honest, i was not looking to visit the site of the world trade center. i'm that person who visited auschwitz and secretly regretted it right after. and 9/11 was a mere 9 and a half years ago, there is no way i want to visit the very spot it took place.

i'm standing here looking at this huge area. things are moving, in and out, construction workers, trucks, equipment, there is so much productivity. this may sound wierd, but i really feel, as i'm watching all of this movement, a sense of rebirth, and even... hope? is that a platitude? cliche? probably, but there is a sense of a new beginning here, and frankly that's kind of the theme of my life...

...so i'll go with it.