BEWARE!

this blog was once described to me as
"poem, poem, poem, i rode the subway, poem, poem, poem, i rode it again"
i laughed when i heard this because the person describing my writing had really hit the nail on the head with that one

it's true, i've encountered a lot underground in the six years that I've lived in New York
and as much as i detest everything about the subway system from time to time, this city's mta is literally teeming with inevitable situations and encounters tailor-made for a journalistic blog-like exploration

on this afternoon, as i entered the subway yet again, i noticed a black purse had been left in a corner near the exit
the purse looked exactly like the posters warning commuters to alert a station attendant if they see any suspicious or unwatched packaging and i was immediately concerned

the signs, like the announcements made in airport terminals, are a bomb precaution and in my opinion a great step towards getting people to look out for one another
but i'd certainly never seen an unattended bag or item aside from stray trash in all my years, so the signs were both unavoidable and invisible at the same time

but today, here one was
open, large, leathery and near a corner but in plain sight
they could have been photographing the next line of warning posters for all i knew
it looked that menacing

well, no sooner had i seen this lone bag than i noticed at least a half dozen people walking towards the mta employee's glass partition alerting her of it's presence

and "wow" i thought
the signs really work
people are responsible
if given the opportunity they will do the right thing

not to kill what little climax i may have unintentionally managed to elicit, but it turned out that a few moments later a woman claimed the bag as her own
(i'm not sure why she'd left it there)
and, like clockwork, business immediately moved on as usual

the whole encounter was fleeting, irrelevant really to most of you
but i appreciated seeing so many strangers, without hesitation, move towards helping each other out
not one person turned a blind eye
action was taken
and the day was saved