Central Park has Pale Male…
But there is a hawk in Tompkins Square Park too. He doesn’t get the children’s books written about him or the songs, but as far as I’m concerned he’s way cooler.
First of all he doesn’t have a name, which makes him all mysterious and junk, and second he lives in Tompkins Square Park which has a higher coolness level than Central Park, if you’re in to that sort of thing, which of course this hawk is not, which makes him even cooler.
The Hawk and I are also good friends. Lots of people want to be his friend, taking pictures of him, wanting to hang out with him, but the Hawk and I always say “hi” in that cool way of nodding your head up and saying “hey” or not even saying anything but just acknowledging you’re there and cool with a head nod. That’s our relationship when other people are around.
But when other people are still asleep in the mornings and Rose and I are walking in the Park, or when I am walking to work in the mornings and I see him on a fire escape watching, the Hawk and I have a chance to say “hello” and not have to act cool or tough.
The Hawk and I are friends because we’ve both adapted to city life pretty well, he has squirrels and rats to eat, I have Nino’s Pizza and Banjara. I have Bree and Rose to hang out with and love and he has…well, squirrels and rats. But we both get by where we live, both have adapted well to our man-made environment of concrete and steel, of asphalt and brick. And both of us would rather live with a little more trees and a little less people.
So for now, the hawk and I will be cool because the people we love are here (and the things we love to eat) and we couldn’t love living somewhere else without them. We have Tompkins Park with the trees (and rats and squirrels) and when the people are around we’ll head nod and play it cool.
We can talk in the morning.
A friend of mine was working the 3rd shift at the diner in Buffalo and was taking a cigarette break outside. It was probably about 3 o’clock in the morning and what does he see? A turkey running down the center of main street away from downtown towards the suburbs.
Was this turkey about to become dinner inside someones city apartment and doing its best to escape into nature? Was it a robot and had escaped its master? Either way, someone was very unhappy in the morning when they discovered that their turkey had escaped.