triptych: joy

1. driving south on the thruway we came upon a truck hauling a carousel. it was not the pretty carousels of my own childhood, intricately carved and ornately painted ponies in a variety of galloping poses. the horses were more stylized, black and white with orange saddles. still there were carousel horses barreling down the highway. nothing but good can come of that.

2. today was a crappy day. cold miserable rain, angry clouds, ugly winds. i was walking down the street behind a little girl wearing green galoshes with frog faces on the toes. her raincoat was pink and her umbrella was yellow and black striped with little wings, antennae and a stinger. she is who i thought i was at eight. she is who i think i am now, i suppose. and she stomped wildly in every single puddle on the sidewalk, veering dangerously into the paths of miserable folks just to get the deepest parts of the puddles. i looked at my own feet. no frog faces, but green galoshes nonetheless. my raincoat is green, not pink, but just like hers it makes me impervious to rain. and although i don't have a bee umbrella (i really, really want one), this is because umbrellas and i are nemeses, full of passionate hatred for one another. when put in the same place, one of us always ends up shattered and miserable. so i pulled up the hood on my raincoat. good enough. and i stomped in every puddle i could find.

3. for as long as i've been living in the city there have been trios of spanish-singing men roaming the trains with guitars and accordions, playing and singing. they are always good. they are usually dressed up pretty fancy. sometimes you see them once or twice a week and then other times you may not see them for months. today i sat on the southbound platform for the q train underground, stuffy, blah. and i heard a soft harmonica sound. it got bigger and then bigger somewhere across the platform. from behind a pole i saw an accordion unfurl itself. the sound of guitar slid across the double tracks. three men stood together away from the rest of the crowd, tuning instruments, getting ready. even that was worth listening to.