In the Womb....

I'm starting to get that feeling again. It's a building, a spark to fire not unlike the electric charge that brings to a stater to ignite and engines. All of these koving parts play specific roles, all of these inner urges translating themselves into thoughts and ideas. I am about to embark on not just one, but a series of creative endeavors across a number of mediums. I was working on one novel, but due to a variety of factors I'm sitting it on the shelf. As I hope and pray that my folks on the other side help me to turn a couple of red project to black and hence begin the chain reaction or sorts that can get me up out of hell, I'm also prepared in case things go the other way.

As I waited on the platform for an AI train to work my boy Brook yelled at me from the other side. I have known Brook since I was 17 and a freshman in college. We were a part of a small crew of cats who almost always hit dinner right when the dining hall opened in hopes of getting the best of the slop they called meals service. Since then we've almost always ended up in the same places. He's gone from teacher to editor and I've gone from editor to teacher. We were a part of the scene that once was and are now walking the same quest to stay alive.

"Where you headed?" I asked him.
"To work with some kids," he says. "You?"
"TO work with some kids," I say. "Opposite directions to do the same thing."

We share a laugh like warriors meeting at some forest pass on their way to different battle, four slabs of track and a good 30 feet between us, a peppering of strangers listening to our voices carry. This city is so big that it's cool when you unexpectedly stumble across someone familiar.

Earlier yesterday I passed two sistas who had obviously lived in Bed-Stuy their whole lives, both of whom had done prison terms, and both of whom weren't that happy with the men of their choosing. One of them hung up the cat to talk to the lost homegirl. The other unceremoniously departed from the man she was walking with to dart across the intersection for a hello. So many hypotheses could come about from these actions, but you never know what the truths are. You never know what someone else is doing at the same time that you are. You never know how it all connects. This is what I'll be writing about next, in my own sort of way. I'm even going to call in some folks for backup. It's going to be fun.

In celebration of my creative epiphany last night, I got me some crab legs, two Tsingtaos and some steamed dumplings. Made me some crab stock too. I watched LOST and had an in=depth discussion about my dreams and fantasies with Seda. We had that new homeboy/homegirl "I love you" moment, the one where you smile at the pleasures that come from letting new people into your life, folks you can trust, folks who understand you when others do not. It's always a blessing, as it was with so many of my other close friends.

As I just found out that I'll be working through the weekend, I'm going to have to bask in similarly simple pleasures. I think I'm going to use that stock to make myself some shrimp soup with white noodles and scallions. That should sooth me as I go through Wire withdrawal. Yeah...right. Out.