#hwbc

and the blood of marigolds met the air

as the city burned

I was in your arms

and in your grandma’s prayers

Was enjoying lunch outside the bookstore on Crosby Street in Soho and got to talking with my benchmate, a middle-aged man holding a Housing Works shopping bag. 

He told me the books you buy represent your mind: you're looking for answers to the questions you think. He told me that the 50-cent rack at Housing Works Bookstore is the most dangerous thing ever invented. 

Of the six books he had purchased, three were to do with babies and childbirth. One even titled, Preparing for an Easier Childbirth. 

"You have a baby?" I asked.

"No," he said. "But it was only fifty cents!

For a dollar fifty, now I'm prepared."