news alert this evening: police have uncovered a specific but unconfirmed terrorist threat to the city's mass transit system. "people should live their lives as they always do," the mayor, however, exhorted new yorkers.
and so i did. decided to eat out, of all nights, tonight. prepped myself only to find a roach in the bowl, its blackish brown, wilted wings puckered into a neat little bow bobbing on the water stained blue by a toilet disinfectant.
half drowned, it thrashed, (jactitate, the word i so wanted to use, but then again...), hoping against hope, that the sleepy dope who lives in this not-so-hygienic apartment, perhaps, might suddenly appear, heavy with sympathy and an imbecility to flush the water slowly, giving it enough time to dash on its spindly, water logged legs towards the more hospitable side of the bowl.
down here in the island most scarred by terrorism in the new century, fear driving against its shore is just one layer of wave spread thin inside another. and small things, small people, who have never questioned the unappeasing nature of the times, wish--betting against all odds, like a birthright--for always another chance.
