New Yorkers are brusque, broody, as if they all have agreed that no one will be happy
And this gives a certain tilt to the island, all the while New Yorkers are oddly compliant, say about moving through a subway station, and also helpful if you ask, and often earnest.

I almost lived among them once when I was just out of college
until I learned that my friend’s apartment was on the 37th floor
and that’s too far away from the earth for me,
and so head hung low,
I returned to the shore,
and promptly had my heart skewered
which primed it for falling in love with Casey,
and losing a baby
and moving to Vermont…

But I would’ve liked to have gotten to know New Yorkers more.

Maybe someday I’ll learn to live apart from the ground.