In 2022, a good friend and I sent three-lined stories back and forth to one another. We called them “Texts”. They are resurfacing for me now. I will share some of mine here – one at a time.

Text 8

In the days following the Tompkins Square Riot, shock and grief squeezed down tight over Alphabet City. One late afternoon, from a squat on Seventh and C, a girl dangled her feet over the edge of the fifth floor window while she smoked a cigarette. That’s when the voices arrived, clear and persistent: “you are worth so much more than this” – “you are going to be fine” – “it’s time to leave . . . now.”

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August 13, 2024
Mercury Retrograde
Hudson Valley, New York

Image: Sad Bat @ Holly Troy 2022.17.03