New York Love
︎︎︎ Conor Truax
︎ Jan 31, 2023
I was riding the subway the other day
Not sure if it was the R,
Maybe the J?
Whatever it was it was packed, sweaty
My height was the only gateway for airspace,
The girl next to me
Shit
Her breath smelled like a retirement home somehow.
And on the bench in the packed subway, there’s this guy
He’s just laying there.
Three seats,
Two legs,
One ass.
Everyone’s looking at each other like,
The fuck?
Who’s gonna wake him up?
We’re all shakin’ heads so we can agree
About our disappointment
in this situation of ours.
Everybody does something
But it never comes to more than a headshake.
Then he comes flying on the car —
Wait, that’s a she?
She’s jacked, real jacked
Tall too
Makes me look small
Like
I guess my airspace ain’t so mine anymore.
And she’s movin’ toward the guy on the train,
Yellin’ like
“Get the fuck up bitch”
And all her friends are like
“Slow the fuck down bitch”
And the guy
The sleeping guy
Who, wait
I guess he wasn’t much sleeping?
He turns and says
“I gotta full cast”
To which she says
“Boo-hoo, bitch, I gotta bad knee!”
And her friends are yelling still
They’re saying
“HE COULD BE DANGEROUS!”
And we’re all standing there nodding mute like
“HE COULD BE DANGEROUS!”
And, well
You can see what’s gonna happen
‘Cus everyone knows what’s about to happen
Preemptively looking for police
Pulling out the Citizen app
He says
“Take this, bitch!”
And he’s already moved to pull it out
The thing at his waist
It looks so big and weighty now
How did we miss it before?
We were too busy nodding to see
What was immediate to the present
But distant from our minds
The thing in his hand
Motioning toward her
It’s moving right into her now;
Nobody can intervene
As it collides
With the soft of her skin
Naked in the palm of her hand
And she says:
“Thank you hun,
Lay your ass down,
these protein bars are expensive.”
Not sure if it was the R,
Maybe the J?
Whatever it was it was packed, sweaty
My height was the only gateway for airspace,
The girl next to me
Shit
Her breath smelled like a retirement home somehow.
And on the bench in the packed subway, there’s this guy
He’s just laying there.
Three seats,
Two legs,
One ass.
Everyone’s looking at each other like,
The fuck?
Who’s gonna wake him up?
We’re all shakin’ heads so we can agree
About our disappointment
in this situation of ours.
Everybody does something
But it never comes to more than a headshake.
Then he comes flying on the car —
Wait, that’s a she?
She’s jacked, real jacked
Tall too
Makes me look small
Like
I guess my airspace ain’t so mine anymore.
And she’s movin’ toward the guy on the train,
Yellin’ like
“Get the fuck up bitch”
And all her friends are like
“Slow the fuck down bitch”
And the guy
The sleeping guy
Who, wait
I guess he wasn’t much sleeping?
He turns and says
“I gotta full cast”
To which she says
“Boo-hoo, bitch, I gotta bad knee!”
And her friends are yelling still
They’re saying
“HE COULD BE DANGEROUS!”
And we’re all standing there nodding mute like
“HE COULD BE DANGEROUS!”
And, well
You can see what’s gonna happen
‘Cus everyone knows what’s about to happen
Preemptively looking for police
Pulling out the Citizen app
He says
“Take this, bitch!”
And he’s already moved to pull it out
The thing at his waist
It looks so big and weighty now
How did we miss it before?
We were too busy nodding to see
What was immediate to the present
But distant from our minds
The thing in his hand
Motioning toward her
It’s moving right into her now;
Nobody can intervene
As it collides
With the soft of her skin
Naked in the palm of her hand
And she says:
“Thank you hun,
Lay your ass down,
these protein bars are expensive.”
Conor Truax is a writer, designer, and engineer based in New York by way of Canada. His work explores the failures of communication and then existential redundancies of the digital age. He hopes you'll connect with him @conortruax.