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Adelaide Shaw

A City Corner

A hot day in June. New York City. Lower East Side. People-watching from a corner café. The tourist busses rumble down 5th Avenue, holding at the corner light. Sun-drenched double-deckers. The tourists squinting. A guide, standing before one group, microphone in hand, lips moving. “And here we have…and there…and there…” No need for me to hear his words.

This is a casual area of the City. No high fashion, society or career women, no Brooks Brothers. executive suits walking around. Every-day New Yorkers, shopping the small markets and delis, the dollar stores. Dog walkers, three and four canines marching like obedient foot-soldiers. Mommies with strollers, delivery vans, loading, unloading. The occasional vagrant or bag-lady shuffling through the corner trash-cans, wary and abandoned expressions on their faces.

shielding my eyes
from the sun glare
Walk. Don’t Walk.