NY Writers Coalition

They ought to put a bed down here. So many women huddle along the cold tile floor of the Penn Station bathroom hoping for some clustered moments of sleep that it would only be merciful to have a bed. No sooner does the women's breathing shift—deeper more rhythmic, a musical accompaniment to REM sleep—than the police enter on their regular rounds to rouse and disperse the women. The bathroom matrons, as sometimes do the police, rely on Virginia—former teacher, now homeless—the self-appointed matron of the space—to help ease people out. She encourages this one, nudges that one, sweeps up disarrayed belongings of another.

But Margaret is too heavily and desperately asleep—too long deprived and disheartened. A cop, Kojak, as we call him, all massive bulk and clean-shaven head, approaches her and slams his police baton against the wall some feet above her head. It cracks loud and fierce but there are only sounds of love grumblings, hissing from her throat and lungs, and an almost imperceptible twinge of her leg. I keep one eye peeled on her and one carefully on Kojak as I slowly feign gathering my possessions in order to buy time so I can keep vigil. Kojak moves towards the other end of her body, striding with a rigid military air, and heaves a kick hard onto the sole of her right foot. She gasps and starts.

"Move it!" he yells and swings around fast toward me feeling the heat of my eyes upon him.

I dip my eyes down and heave up my bag and move edging to Margaret's side as she struggles to her feet. Kojak is moving round the room now much like a caged animal and running his bat sharply over the tile walls.

"C'mon—out all of you bitches—outta here." He falls in behind us (Margaret and me, the stragglers) pounding the wall behind us and herding us like animals to the slaughter.

"Line up against the wall," he shouts and some dozen women bedraggled and exhausted welcome the wall to help keep us standing. Mary teeters, her eyes half closed. Her thin calves poke out from her skirt like a blue heron's spindly legs. Her own legs are twitching tremendously. Kojak drives us on now marching us through hallways of lower Penn Station and up the escalator. We can feel the heavy drafts blowing in from the opened gates and doorways—another tactic used to drive the homeless out. Blasts of cold air alternating with suffocating heat. The ram, ram, ram of his bat follows us and he strides rudely and darkly behind us snickering, then letting go a barrage of ugly comments. He drives us out onto Eighth Avenue where the cold bleakness reserved for three a.m. is whipping up short, hard blasts of air and dampness. I send a quick glance to Margaret again, who is ill-protected in a short sleeve shirt, and register a further worry for her well-being. We spread out now as he blathers at us: "STAY OUT" and we roam a short distance in various directions, our legs swollen and leaden and decidedly unable to carry us any further.

After years on the street I have come to believe that one can fairly die for lack of sleep and that waking and sleeping begin to merge in some horrific limbo that is the walking night terror of people who are homeless. Not long after this incident set in the 1980s, Penn Station closed off all those areas. They redesigned a more homeless-proof bathroom and so escalated vigilance that women hardly ever find sanctuary there. Where do they find it? I worry. For everyplace and nearly everyone, it seems, continues to say: "Stay out."

New!! If These Streets Could Talk --- our anthology of writing from the first few years of our workshops. Cost is $15, plus 2.50 S&H. Pre-order now and be the first on your block to have it!

Read Excerpts:

Pretty by Cindy Lei, Age 7
Night Sweeps by Ann Quintano
Johnny by Judy Taylor
Dead Rat Hamburgers by Tiffany Wong, Age 8

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If These Streets Could Talk: Fiction & Poetry from NY Writers Coalition
$15.00, Anthology/Fiction/Poetry, paperback, 5.5” x 7.5”, 178 pp.; 0-9787794-0-1
Published by NY Writers Coalition Press. Available at local bookstores and at www.nywriterscoalition.org. Available to the trade through Consortium and other major wholesalers (Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc.)
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All media inquiries contact Aaron Zimmerman at NY Writers Coalition, (718) 398-2883 or aaron@nywriterscoalition.org