From the Ground Up: Ruminations of a Street Corner

I’ve been having very morbid thoughts recently, like who would play me in a biopic of my life. I would really want James Earl Jones, because that voice has a gravitas I feel goes really well with my personality.

I’ve seen my community change through the years. If I were to have died a couple of decades ago, I’m sure that the pomp and circumstance of my demise would have been surrounded by police tape and marked up with the chalk of the coroner. Now, I’d probably have some hipsters planting wild colorful flowers in my cracked orifices.

As some things change, others stay the same. Whereas a generation ago a john would pick up a girl (or boy) working me, today, two lovers may meet on me to start their date. I’ve always been a meeting place, but never one where people stay for too long.

Now, when people work me, they are usually a charitable organization trying to get signatures or donations to help save a village in Africa or penguins in the Antarctic. I see the people who pretend to have conversations with imaginary phone friends so they don’t have to have a real conversation with the people trying to make a difference.

On a daily basis, I also see random encounters of friends and neighbors who stop for a few minutes on top of me, catch up and make empty promises for plans that will never actually take place.

As a street corner, you learn not to judge the professions, life choices or lies. The people who walk on top of you consider you a liminal place that, like Las Vegas of lore, maintains its secrets.

I really love the goodbyes, though. The end of the date that lingers with a conversation that just doesn’t want to end. Both parties know that they need to go to their respective homes alone, but the desire to stay for a bit longer overwhelms them. I feel special at that point, because their conversation is more intimate and meaningful than it was an hour ago in the restaurant.

And then when they finally kiss goodbye, I transport them to a place far from here for a moment that can last forever. Those are the moments I cherish. Those are the moments that will survive me when I’m gone.