NYC is Back?

 Last night my sister asked if 'nyc was back?' Back from what? She heard online that nyc was back. I thought about it: is it...are we...back? Welp there is no...

- live music

- theatre

- tourism

- gatherings

- school

Offices only have 8% of their employees back. I haven't been on a subway in 6 months. My gym keeps calling me like a thirsty ex...'hey, i miss ur face...did I tell you we have new classes? Yeah...super fun...and, um, we got all the floor space you can handle...um, we are now serving crack-cocaine smoothies? Yeah, first smoothies 10 are free. Just stop by...so...please...please.'

But the infection is low. Ambulances aren't wailing around the clock to mark the spread of the plague. There are no refrigerated trucks parked next to hospital or nursing homes to serve as portable morgues. You can have a meal at a restaurant...outside...in limited capacity with waiters who are both desperate for income and anxious about the possibility of dying from a highly infectious airborne disease while serving tapas which makes for an odd sort of hospitality energy. 

Capitalism is a trip. You can be damn near death and the second your fever breaks, moneyed interests are sitting by your bedside smiling 'you're back, baby. Wow, you're glowing...you look all healthy and glistening. Those lip blisters are hawt! They look like punk girl piercings... so can we give you a work shift this week? Just tell us if you want double overtime because you kinda let us down by almost dying. It's no big deal, we just started up a tab of how much backmoney you owe us and you can pay us back at a low low interest rate.' 

Capitalism will bring you to the point of death, watch you start to get better, and then try to kill you again with false enthusiasm. 

I can't speak for everyone but my nyc is not back. My nyc is coping, managing, putting on a brave face in the middle of a long recovery. My nyc is trying to not explode in choking fits of rage at a federal gov that said 'letting them die during an election year is a good campaign strategy. We can totally blame the Dems.'  My nyc has gov attorneys sharpening their knives to go after tax fraud. My nyc is patiently seething like a slow cooker, breaking down the sinewy tendons of horror and tragedy. Boiling and breaking down the bits. Inchoate justice will not due in this case. The meal must be fully cooked. 

My nyc is not back, as in back to normal. It has crawled out of a grave to face a gathering crowd of robbers, landlords, and lies that it has to fight through like an army of zombies. NYC might do it too. It is relentless.