For the birds
05/17/03
11:30 p.m. I'm waiting at Queens Plaza for the G train that just isn't coming, so I sit down, and the middle-aged guy two seats to my right is doing something strange. I look closer, and he has a little bird in his hand! He's caressing it, kissing it on the mouth, petting it, and it's squirming around a little. The train comes, we get on, and he puts the bird on his shoulder, first on one side of his red-striped jacket, then on the other. The little bird has a green body and a red tail that almost matches the jacket, and for a moment it's free to fly away -- but where would it go?
He plays with the bird a little more, kisses it a few more times, and puts it back in his jacket pocket, where I can see a little splash of green through the white fabric. He pulls out a Russian newspaper and starts reading, giving me a good look at the amateur (jailhouse?) tattoo on his right hand: Boris (in Cyrillic).
I feel a little connection: this average-looking guy, with combed-over black hair, long sideburns and alligator shoes, has a bird in his pocket, and no one on the train knows except him and me.
Then Boris folds up his newspaper, pats his pocket and gets off at Broadway, and it's over, except for my grin the rest of the way home.
I have NO idea:
Jackson Heights
Um, no thanks:
Missing some quotation marks?, Jackson Heights
12:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Comments
I love this site! Urban decay fascinates me to no end. I live near Toronto, Canada and the decay is not as ripe as yours.
Keep up the great work!
Posted by: Kevin at March 11, 2004 06:47 PM
Thats something to think about , kind of scary to me because Im russian , wonder what hes doing . Thats right if he has a tattoo on his hand in crylic person been in jail , I always lissend when my father talkd .