a new york promise
This time, when you called my name, I forgot all my reasons for not coming to begin with. No more excuses, expenses, fears. Only possibility.
My heart belongs to the Atlantic, whichever side I end up on, and you are where I will first bring me home. On this coast where all my ancestors sailed, from somewhere, in search of something, and built lives and generations.
With you, I will start again. I am the same me but will become better. I will remember that I owe no one and I own no thing. I will be at home in my own soul, the only possession I have, I will make it a present that I am proud to live in and share with others.
I will delight in your dirt, your trash, your struggle and sin. Your seasons, your altars, your hustle and hum. I will pass by and catch eyes with a million strangers, fall in love again and again with your honking harmony and sacred subway journeys.
In advance, I’d like to say: I hate you, I love you, nice to see you again. I’d like to be friends, I hope you’ll let me stay for a while.