never did get to see that skyline the way it was again.
never did go downtown to see the mess. it's been years now. perhaps tomorrow i will go and pay my respects.
~~~
to everyone it is obvious, that city skyline. to me, though, it's the beginning and the end of a trip to and from my parents home. it tops off the excitement that i'll soon be seeing my family after months/year. it is a reassurance that while i'm headed in the opposite direction, home will always be there and that skyline will be there...unchanged, welcoming, and saying hurry back.
from the jersey side of the hudson, it ushered the excitement of a 13 yr old girl on a commuter bus headed into the lincoln tunnel on her way to a professional dance class in midtown. it was there to say hello, as adult, on her way to a city college. it served as a backdrop to meeting the love of my life when he sat, as a stranger, next to me on a bus headed out of the port authority to parts up north towards the hudson valley...
my life has been spent coming and going over bridges, through tunnels that eventually unfold that glorious unique skyline. i've lost love coming and going, i've ridden drunk off my ass in cars zooming at a too fast speed over the gw bridge or up the jersey turnpike...my first drive in my own car over the bridge, it was the first thing i did...look over to that skyline.
there's nothing like it. there'll never be anything like it again...maybe better or worse, but nothing ever like it that stirs my insides the way it has my whole life.