3.15 a.m. New York. (I have yet to grow tired of writing New York.) Set this up again to record what little I have seen of New York -- and because I have a lot of work to do and have no intention of doing it. So here it is. And here I am.

110th and Amsterdam.

Shang yue. The sky faintly orange with lamplight
and tonight the moon bright enough to compete,
big like a streetlamp. A car horns when we stop
in the middle of the road to look. First official day
of autumn, and we’re explaining – inventing –
the origins of the mid-autumn festival to Tomoko.
– Is it like the Korean moon festival – a kind of
Korean thanksgiving? – No. Maybe. We’ve forgotten
all our traditions except the food. (Laughter.) Later,
out of the kitchen window, with crumbly greasy
days-old Chinatown mooncakes and green tea
with a panda on the box from West Side supermarket,
we’ll look for and not find the moon.

New York, 23 Sept 2002