I was standing in line
At the supermarket
And overheard a woman talking
About the new neighborhood
To which she’d be moving soon.
“It’s quiet,” she said to the cashier.
And the cashier nodded knowingly.
I started thinking about how that phrase means
different things to different people.
For some, it probably conjures images of
green lawns,
and smooth, black, bike-riding asphalt on lightly-trafficked streets,
Families tossing hellos over fences…
For others, it means (much more than simply)
walking the street without fearing harassment,
feeling fairly certain you won’t awaken to screaming most nights,
being able to walk from the bus stop to your home
without seeing more
than you bargained for.
Then I thought
maybe she just meant that she’d be moving to a place
where she could send her teenager out for candy at 9:00 at night,
and be mostly sure he’d come back home
safe, whole.
Thank you.
This is beautiful. Sad and beautiful. Thank you for sharing it.
This touched me. Thank you for expressing thoughts that have been playing in my heart.
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M,
You have an amazing command of the English Language. Your writing manages to be elegant and profound and it moves people. I can think of no better complement for a writer.
I read “It’s Quiet” 2 days ago and today a fellow Brownsville Principal sent word that her 13 year old graduate had just been shot dead in the streets at night over the weekend: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/13-year-old-brooklyn-boy-killed-brownsville-street-shooting-article-1.1143542#commentpostform
When reading the comments on the article, I immediately thought that if some of the comment writers could read this piece and truly understand it, they may not be writing what they wrote.
Thank you.