Fork

I lost my fork. It was my last fork.
I arrived in NYC with a "set" of at least four or five forks. (I place quotes around "set" because none of them matched, all were strays that had been left by others or forked over by mom.) Two of the forks disappeared in October when I was getting takeout everyday. Dinners were eaten, tv was watched, and forks were accidentally thrown away. I w(sh)(c)ould have gone with plastic forks, but I sometimes have environmental protection anxiety (epa). By February I was down to one fork. At that point, I became determined to hold on to that fork. Everything was fine until last week. There must have been a distraction. Was it a car horn? Did the phone ring? Was I distracted by a pigeon doing the "hot plate" dance? Did a Modest Mouse song make me smile? I don't know, because I don't remember when it happened. Now I have no fork. Most items have become finger food. I sometimes use a spoon. As of now, I have plenty of spoons.

I Live in NYC

I was sitting on a park bench in Battery Park last Saturday when a man came up to me and asked if I was from the city. I hesitated but said yes. I was excited because other tourists were asking the park service guy for directions. I have lived in NYC for seven months. Wherever I live, I think of myself as being from somewhere else. Right now, I feel like I'm from Michigan, where I had lived previous to moving to NYC. The man stood in front of me, kindly acting as a sunblock, and asked for directions to Times Square. I had just come from there, so I confidently described the route. He thanked me and walked away. I sat on the bench. The sun shone. The tourists strolled. The memories rush inward. One thing I remembered was the actual route to Times Square. I had told the man to get on the wrong subway. I felt terrible, but the sun soon dried the guilt that had washed over me. Maybe I feel like I'm from somewhere else because I'm not ready to let NYC supplant my prior address. Or maybe I feel like I'm from somewhere else because my sense of direction takes so long to develop.