in the uber from Long Island City, at twenty three minutes past six, i see the daybreak on the concrete pillars of Moynihan Train Hall - bright white and blue rays cast upon an otherwise still and overcast dawn. my eyes tightened, taken aback by the sheer beauty and still half asleep in this backseat. i had spent the last days more alone than i had been on this entire trip; popping into the diner multiple times a day, lavishing in hour long subway rides into brooklyn, and now i was shipping myself off to spend the next few in rural Virginia in a farmhouse with someone that i’d never met before. waking early excites me like a child. a novelty in the life of a beatnik. i laid my clothes out next to me on the bed like it was a school excursion - what kind of worm am i trying to get to that i need to beat the sun at its own game? as i yawn and look up at the red light we were stopped at i realise that what i’m actually seeing casted upon the train hall is, in fact, the glow of giant LED screens advertising a sports betting website atop Penn Station.
life is short. football season is shorter.