the original reason for starting this blog was to tell the stories of life on the streets in new york city during the peak days of the pandemic. A time where I was standing at the epicenter of the Crisis in America, And a crisis in my life. it’s time i got back to that. I will present a few vignettes of the times on the street, during a historic health disaster.
I can’t keep my memories in chronological order so I’ll just present snapshots.
“insanity in a ghost town 24 seven” is what I said in my original Washington Square post from strangers project. I’d like to present details of the insanity:
the empty 7 train to Queens, mid day. some time in April 2020
as i was trying to get Sleep on the empty seven train to Queens, suddenly the door to the other train car opened and in stumbled a tall, overweight, Asian man; seemingly in his late 30s. He was dressed as if he were preparing for a snowstorm, even though it was a rather warm spring.
He approached me, and in a deep voice he asked me for a light. Thinking he was going to light a cigarette, I reached in my pocket and handed him my lighter.
Suddenly, he was lighting a crack pipe right in front of me, and had started puffing away. He then Passed it my way, and I could not decline: After all, that would be rude. I took a few hits, and there we were: two of us smoking crack on the seven train, in the middle of the day.
Every time he took a hit, he said, in an even deeper voice, “fiiii-yer” (fire).
I don’t know if he ran out of crack, but He began stuffing the pipe with the synthetic cannabinoid, known as k2, while puffing huge clouds of synthetic smoke, filling the subway car. naturally, he offered me a few hits.
now crack cocaine is one thing, but I will always pass on K2. I don’t even like to smoke real weed, I get too anxious and awkward. The one time I had tried K2, years prior,I had felt like I was having a stroke. no thanks. I passed on the k2 offer so he handed me my lighter, and proceeded to pry open the door to the next car, and move on without saying a word. all in all, the only verbal communication in the whole exchange was when he said “fiyy-yer”.
It all sounds crazy now. at the time, it wasn’t crazy and it wasn’t surprising. This is the kind of thing that was going on, given the state of the city and The state of emergency from COVID-19. i’m trying to help you picture The lawless ghost town that i was inhabiting at that time.
everyone who had a place to shelter in was sheltering in place. The only people left out were the homeless, the addicted and the mentally ill. I was all three so I fit right in.
it was scary to be in it, I was scared all the time . There hung a very menacing vibe, people were desperate. Desperate people do desperate things. you just never knew what was possible at any given time.
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