NaPoWriMo - Day 2

An Open Letter to New York Tourists

By Liz Kelso

Yes the big building is pretty

Yes the homeless man is dirty

Don’t stop to read your map in the center of Times Square

Don’t look at us natives as if we are aliens from the dark skies

We walk fast

We talk fast

We rush on by

We will push you and not apologize

We will mumble profanities – audibly

Roll our eyes

Suck our teeth

No we don’t wait for the light when we cross the street

Don’t copy, you can’t, you’ll die

We can walk and text – our antennae are working

Don’t copy, you can’t, you’ll die

Unless of course

You’re from Tokyo or Hong Kong

Or some other similarly insane city

That has perfected the art of the zig zag and the bee line

If you are from Wichita or Kickapoo

Where the pace is a little slower

And the streets a less chaotic

Don’t annoy us natives

By taking a picture of the neon billboards

When we are trying to enter the subway station

The world thinks we natives are rude, unkind and nasty

We’re not

We’re just perpetually in a hurry to our graves

And your meandering and expressions of awe

Are breaking our stride.