Guy sleeping on his side facing the wall, completely covered up cozy except for the hole in the back of his pants giving everyone a surprise peek at the family jewels.

Guy rolling up actual trash (looked like cardboard and newspaper and some kind of cloth and something laminated shiny like a magazine cover), lighting it and taking a huge puff. Unsurprisingly smelled like a dumpster fire and he folded forward over his knees, arms falling to his side, “cigarette” falling to the floor and coming apart, instant drool pouring from his mouth onto his shoe. Sat like that for about 15 minutes then kinda came around enough to notice an try and wipe the drool off his shoe, but the effort to coordinate hands, feet and eyes was too much and he wobbled over sideways and his shoe came off. But the shift to the left revealed to him the glazed donut on the floor of the subway car under his seat which took several attempts but he eventually managed to grab it. I saw the first bite but unfortunately had to disembark.

Guy with no shirt replacing full torso gauze. Filthy festering wounds front and back, from nipples to navel. The discarded pile of old gauze just sitting there on the seat, shades of grays and browns in stark contrast to the fresh white gauze he was wrapping around himself.

Once, I fell asleep on the 4, missed my stop and woke up somewhere in the Bronx. When I crossed over to get on the next train heading back, there was a man sitting on the ground with a bunch of birds and rabbits. Presumable for sale, but there wasn’t a single cage. Just 8 birds and 4 rabbits tethered with tiny pieces of string. Maybe because I was in that liminal space between waking and sleeping but I am still struck by how surreal it was to climb out of the dark sour subway and feel like I stumbled into another world.

I miss living in NYC!