A Love Story in Eight Bus Stops
This is perhaps the only time in recorded history when a woman has given a double-take to a man in a beige running suit and fanny pack. He boards the … Continue reading
To Say it’s a Nice Day is Difficult…
“What moves lives. What is said endures. There’s nothing in life that’s less real for having been described. Small-minded critics point out that such and such a poem, with its … Continue reading
The Integral and Differential Maverick
The math professor rose above the desire to be a crowd pleaser. Sure, it was an interdisciplinary conference of colleagues, but he’d had a lifetime of receiving precisely these blank … Continue reading
Self-Sufficient
An elementary-aged girl pushed the button for the tram to stop, then turned to her birdcage, which she had propped on a nearby seat. She exhaled and prepared herself with … Continue reading
Not a Drop of Worry
A tall father rushed to keep his tiny daughter under their umbrella, trying to watch the fellow pedestrians so as not to gouge them, and also trying to watch the … Continue reading
Can we (at least) slow the pace of disappearing?
This moment, he thought, would not be remembered by anybody but him, and one day it would vanish from his memory too. -Aleksandar Hemon. Nowhere Man. (Book finished in Südbahnhof, … Continue reading
Swiss Miss
The Zürich airport thinks it is better than you. It refuses to be a mere place for waiting to depart, refuses to be a bus stop–it hosts a Hermes boutique. Other … Continue reading
Holiday Travel
The crowd of people at the gate wore looks suited for various executions. They wore sneers of people leaving vacation behind. Even the crowd of pilgrims who climbed through Medjugorje … Continue reading
Carry On
Several members of the Hajduk Split soccer team coalesced outside the airplane. Since the players were spry, many were the first out. They wore matching tracksuits. A few punched at … Continue reading
The Guy in Sunglasses
He was his sunglasses. He could see perfectly well, but these were as much a part of his outfit as his long black ponytail. Reasonably, he wore the sunglasses while … Continue reading
Dinner Shift
The man and small boy park their cart and are waiting to be of service. Early in the evening, they sit on a step outside a long-abandoned barbershop. Huge posters … Continue reading
Waiting for Eve
The mix of humanity at the Budapest bus stop included backpackers, Spaniards, grandmothers with grandchildren, and the Miss Eden Contestants of 2011. Several of the teenage girls stood by pink … Continue reading
Old-Fashioned
Flipping through a fashion magazine, the woman gazes past the words and tries to entertain herself with the pictures. On an interesting photograph of shoes, she reaches for her husband’s … Continue reading
Unsuspecting
In a row of souvenir shops by the Hagia Sofia, a tiny girl with blonde curls wanders ahead of her mother, who has been enjoying the distractingly flirtatious salesmen. Both … Continue reading
To Health
In a café on the Dalmatian coast, a middle-aged waitress leans on the bar and takes coffee and unceasing cigarettes for breakfast. The music on the radio is lively so … Continue reading
Tram Nap
The Kabataş tram sighs through an intersection and a boy stops short to let it pass. He waits with some annoyance, until he discovers something in the last car. A … Continue reading
Bitte Schön
He stands up when the little old lady comes through the doors, since there are no available seats in his section of the U-Bahn. It is not a crowded mid-day, … Continue reading
The Nice Thing About Strangers 