Amelia Fielden

New York, New York*

 . . . not a dream I ever dreamed, yet now this award, this chance. The gift of flights and three nights in a hotel on Manhattan.  At 4 am the grinding and clanking of garbage trucks starts my one free day. Later, after strawberry waffles in the breakfast cafe, I make my way to the object of today’s aspiration — The Metropolitan Art Museum. “You need a whole day for it,” is the received wisdom.  And a whole day it is, from the Egyptian halls to the Tiffany stained glass, to the Impressionist Gallery.

At closing time, I stroll back through Central Park into spring. Dogwood trees in frothy blossom. Scarlet tourist carriages trotting past. I come to a strange artificial cliff. On a huge flat rock at its tip, there’s a wedding ceremony happening. The bride’s long blonde hair flows beneath her veil. She places her hands into those of her African-American groom.

Fragrance drifts from beds of daffodils and jonquils lining the path to the exit.

                                          more foreign 
                                                          for me, than Tokyo
                                                          this city
                                                          so familiar from song
                                                          New York, New York

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  * response to Empire State of Mind by Alicia Keys

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About the Author

Amelia Fielden is Australian. She is a professional Japanese translator and a keen writer of traditional Japanese forms of poetry in English. Her most recent collection is These Purple Years (Ginninderra Press, 2018).