Where The Streets Have No Sleep

I walk the streets day and night.  The streets that never sleep, the streets that carry such famous names as Broadway and Park Avenue.  I walk those streets day and night…Ok, not those exact streets but it’s true I walk the streets of New York City day and night.  Albeit on my way to and from work, that being day and night, I do walk the streets…

The walk is the same, the direction changes from North to South as the day goes from the AM to PM.  I walk up Third Avenue on my way to work every day and then down Third Avenue on my way home.  The difference between the two is amazing.  Almost to the point where the streets look to be completely different settings depending on the hour.

In the morning I am in a pack of people as we make our ‘commute’ to work.  It can hardly be called a ‘commute’ for those people that do their car to a ferry to a train to their under paying, over worked job truly have a ‘commute.’ I simply walk to work in a pack of people.  It’s funny to see these pods of people walking as one so early in the morning when coordination is not typically at its best.  Small groups of people are stopped at some lights and try to scamper through others, altogether. I do see the same people usually, the same kids holding mom or dad’s hand on their way to school and the same deliver trucks just about every morning.  It’s like we’re all playing our roles in big dramatic scene.  

The walk of late has been a fairly swift one.  The winds have been brutal and the temperatures unforgiving.  The pockets of people seem to be smaller and yet the boxes of merchandise that are dropped in front of every store seem to be getting bigger.  It’s like walking to work and a game of mouse trap breaking out.  Dodging cases of cosmetics outside Duane Reade and sacks of potatoes outside of Sarge’s Deli are the daily obstacles I have faced lately.

The stroll home is quite different.  The shops have closed their doors for the night, the restaurants are full of people, and the sidewalks are clear of incoming goods.  The bodies that are moving in what seems like pure synchronization  on the way to work are no where to been seen.  This is a One Man Show.  The deliver trucks have been replaced with garbage trucks picking up the days waste.  The cleaning people are the only ones occupying the stores that were bustling only hours earlier.

The city truly never sleeps.  It only goes through stages and phases.  Some prettier than others, some longer than others, but when all is said and done, it’s a beautiful baby in motion.  

Thanks for listening