‘No, I’m Not Moving to Florida’
By Bracha Nechama Bomze
An illegal incinerator obscures a water tower’s pointy white hat
with a sooty plume
Icicles drip from a tenement fire escape
Sheets of snowdust skid off a sloped roof,
surprising pedestrians with a freezing shower
Stroller wheels spin through a soup of gray slush,
followed by wet boots
Bicycle couriers pedal skiddy traffic lanes,
handlebars hung with other people’s dinners
Somebody’s grandfather steers his walker
over a mound of black ice
My answer remains the same.
Subscribe to WSR’s free email newsletter here.
Love this! I agree 💯
Funny and totally apt. Every New Yorker who stays in town over the winter must feel this exact same way.
Probably has a rent-controlled apartment.
Thank you for your poetry, Bracha Nechama Bomze. Looking forward to hearing more!
LOL! Thank you for this on this lovely, snowy day. It’s like you’ve overheard my sentiments, on repeat, every winter, to my husband. Relays so much.
ME TOO – never ever
I won’t even travel to Florida…..thank goodness, neither will my older parents, so I don’t have to worry about them moving there.
It’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there! (Florida)
In Sanibel Florida right now. Though I live in Lincoln Square, Florida is a very nice place to visit. No crime to worry about, warm weather, no crazy bike couriers and friendly people.
The overall crime rate of the state of Florida is higher than that of NYS. Sanibel is not all of Florida! But I agree that Sanibel is lovely.
Friendly people? My New York “sounding/looking friend was encouraged at gunpoint not to park his car and take his “libtard” butt back to NY by a not so friendly native. Told basically the same by waitstaff at a local restaurant. Give me snowy days and crazy bike couriers any day.
ABSOLUTELY!!!
With all the year-round humidity, FL is considered the Bad Hair State.. No thanks.
Definitely. Grateful to be able to live here. NYC forever for me!
Great poem, and great Mildred Alpert photograph!
Agree with the commenters – you can avoid moving to Florida but still dream about it every so often. Or visit. Sanibel, the Keys….there are some pretty wonderful, warm, easy going places down there.
Written (spoken/kvetched/asserted) like a true New Yorker. I’m with you, Bracha.
brava! nyc cold and grit to florida cray cray any day.
Bracha, loved your poem! Brought back some wonderful memories, for me, of those wonderful years in New York: the way the snow would lay itself so lovingly on all the many old and funky shapes of the city, and put us all to the test of finding comfort in the uncomfortable. I loved it! Florida could never compare in my mind. Thanks, Sharon
Love this! So many visual & tactile images. Captures the hardy resilience of New Yorkers braving winter weather.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/opinion/jerry-seinfeld-new-york-coronavirus.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare