Sitting on the N train
Riding for Coney Island
First visit of the season
A young Hispanic man and I
Me sitting
Him standing and holding a pole
Watch an old woman with a walker
Get up from her seat, carefully steadying herself against the train’s motion as she gets ready to leave.
We meet each other’s eyes
Then look back at her
Respecting her old New York strength
But each of us ready to lunge and catch if the train’s relentless stop-and-start defeats her
As it has the young and surefooted
The train stops. She plants her walker and gets off.
He gets off too. Not with her. He isn’t her nephew or grandson. They don’t know each other.
I go back to reading my book.
Our eyes don’t meet again. We don’t speak.
Three people who never met.
A New York Moment you won’t see on the news.