Coming home from work, I overheard this conversation on New Jersey Transit last night between Newark and New York.

She from West Virginia:  Oh this is so exciting.  Soon I’ll walk through Penn Station, just like I saw in movies and TV.  Even the train ride is exciting.

She from NYC:  Thank you.  Thanks for the reminders.  I’m always tired coming from work on this train, and I forget how exciting this is.  Thank you!

The latter sounded sincere, and I’ll bet it was.  Taking fotos helps remind me of the exciting place the sixth boro is.  I took all these today while showing a friend around.  Like Captain Zeke urging a scow

through the Cut into Erie Basin as crew calls in from his vantage point.

Like encircled bollards lorded over by a frozen crane not far

from silenced shipyard tools.

Like a scow with dredge spoils . . . or is that a steel portal into Poseidon’s realm?

Like the melange of upriver silt mixing with flooding seawater?

Like a tanker bound for sea, leaving

the busyness of the Upper Bay.

Like the solitary exertion of kayaking or

the collaboration of USCGC Campbell heading outbound through the Narrows.

Or like an osprey showing his next-fish-meal the heavens.

Like the aesthetics of coating and oxidation and friction.

Like the osprey invigorated by the fish-meal.

Like the dance of tug and ship and the

tools of egress.

Thank you.  The sixth boro never ceases to tantalize and refresh and motivate another look.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.

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