On a sultry August morning
Just 30 minutes to noon
I was born in the bustling compartments
Of NYU hospital
Taken home in a swaddle
In those early years
I was strolled around along the avenues surrounding Gramercy Park
But mostly,
We stayed in our little apartment
With matchbox cars
And cloth dolls
Days spent running around Gramercy Park with my brother and friends
While our parents picnic and chat
My old doorman who gave me the warmest hugs
The National Arts Club and the annual holiday parties
I don’t remember everything
But I guess my memories are also stories
From my brother and my mom and my dad
The memories are
Fractured pieces that come from summer days in the park
Long evenings eating at the block italian restaurant in Autumn
And it all sort of comes together
There’s this picture on my desk of me as a baby
My dad props me up with one hand,
And takes the photo with a polaroid in the other
I’m sitting on the windowsill of our favorite cafe
And in that picture,
You can kind of see everything
The people rushing off to work in the background
The people drinking coffee on brownstone stoops
It’s a picture that sort of speaks for itself
When I go back to New York
It’s like I’m stepping back into time
We still say hi to my old hairdresser everytime
And the nice doorman
New York may be big
It’s a city of over 8 million after all
But those 8 million neighbors
Are just like me
They come from everywhere
And their culture comes with them
But today, they are New Yorkers
It's a neighborhood
It's a home for so many
It’s five boroughs
Of people who believed in the American dream
I lived in my own little world
A laundromat
A grocery store
A drug store
A toy store
A delicious Hole in the Wall cafe
And a park
All on one block
And I know almost everyone walking next to me on the sidewalk
I could try to forget this place
I could move or relocate to anywhere in the globe
But I won’t forget the capital of the world
And it won’t forget me
Because when I return,
My old block will still be there
My apartment with the creaky wooden floors
And my favorite deli will still be packed with customers
And who wouldn’t want to see the empire city
Come together
Come closer
Rely on thy neighbor
In times of need
“For on that dark September morning
Yes, there was tragedy
But the world saw hope in the solidarity
And the togetherness of New Yorkers,”
My parents tell me
For during those first few months
In mid march 2020
The world saw New York close down
But just 2 years later,
The city that never sleeps
Took a little nap
But awoke
Fresher than ever
New York is culture
It’s cuisine
And little ethnic enclaves
Where you can find your people
Everyone here comes from different walks of life
The streets sing a song of a thousand languages
And the delis and restaurants and little street corner cafes smell like heaven
With every step
In Little India, you can smell the sizzling naan
That sputters in underground kitchens
Then, the confectionary shops in Little Italy where you can buy perfectly packaged panettone during the holidays
That my mom and I adore going to
Then, Chinatown is full of trinket stores and poultry markets
Then, there’s my favorite kawaii minimarts in Koreatown
That I go to while my brother grabs boba with my dad
And when I walk by my favorite pho shop in east village, Hanoi House
It brings me back to my Ba’s kitchen
After a quick ride on the NR train, my Nanny Lolita will greet us
With a casserole of her famous Filipino chicken adobo
At her home in Queens
And for a late, 3:30 brunch, Balthazar is just around the corner in Soho
And though the wait is a few hours long
It is always worth it
To take me back to my favorite brasserie in Paris near my mom’s childhood apartment
In New York, you always find snippets of where you’re from
Wherever you go
New York isn’t something you can just tell someone about
It’s a feeling
Like Billy Joel says in that song
It’s a New York state of mind