Honk Honk!

"I'd betchoo any amount a' money"

"How much money you wanna bet?"

Ah, New York

---

I'm walking cross-town

east to west

on 42nd

from the Port Authority to Grand Central

I make faces at inquisitive babies staring at me from their strollers

whose dumb-as-fuck parents

keep them out this late at night

and grimace at an equally stupid

14-year-old

playing his PSP as he

strolls

mindlessly down

the sidewalk

"I'd betchoo any amount a' money…"

that he gets robbed

before he gets home

---

Automaton tourists pour off the corners

impatient to cross the next street

see the next sight

add it to their lists

and black and Hispanic locals,

in from Harlem of Brooklyn

stand around and joke loudly with each other

clogging the sidewalk

Dumb? No, they're just rude

---

I push past them

interrupting conversations if I have to

Rude? No, I just don't give a shit

I'm trying to get home