In describing my poems in an earlier blog I wrote, “Some are mildly offensive. Some are very offensive. None of them reference dragonflies or the wind.”
Well, ever since then I’ve known that I would eventually have to write a poem called “Dragonflies in the Wind”
So here it is.

I love New York
Because everybody smokes
You can walk into a playground smoking a cigarette
No one cares
A mom might even ask you to hold her baby for a minute while she digs through her bag
Which means that you have to do that maneuver where you have the cigarette dangling from one side of your mouth
While you talk goo goo talk out of the other side
And hope you don’t ash the baby
But the mom won’t really care ’cause she does it all the time

I love New York
Because you can pee anywhere
Not just if you’re a guy
I see women squatting in dark street corners too
I’ve never actually done it
But I could if I wanted to
And nobody would care

I love New York
Because people are always fighting in public
Sometimes in person
But more often on the phone
In some neighborhoods it’s some douchebag executive yelling at one of his (or her) underlings
In other areas it’s a woman screaming obscenities at her boyfriend
But there’s always at least one person making a lot of noise and airing all kinds of shit that would be better kept private
Oblivious to who’s listening
That would be me.
I love that shit

I love New York
Because it’s not spotlessly clean
Like Switzerland – or Colorado
Two places I have never visited, and never will
For that very reason
Too clean

I love New York
Because whatever you buy at the bodega
They put it in a little bag
Since chances are – no matter what it is
It might be illegal to partake of in public
I don’t drink – or do drugs
But I like to enjoy my diet Coke camouflaged inside a little black plastic bag
Gives me some street cred

I love New York
For all of the reasons that everyone else loves New York
And
For all of the reasons that many people would never want to live in New York
I’ll take the bad with the good
To me
The bad is the good
And some of the good is the bad
But that’s another story

I love New York
I also love
Dragonflies in the Wind