Don't worry, Mom, I'm not running near the park anymore.
On guard since Chief Yale guard warned about attempted abduction of a jogger a week ago, I sped up when a tree yelled hey this morning. But a blond, dyed, woman with a microphone, channel eight, emerged. She stepped around the tree and started asking questions with follow-ups as a camera followed her up to me slowly. Is there a better time to be interviewed for the local news than after you've run a mile and a half? Than after you've found out a woman was raped in broad daylight in the park you were running, now standing, soon to be leaving in. It was on Sunday in broad daylight, she stresses the wide word, then repeating the phrase, in broad daylight. I don't think of the people, the deranged danger, just the way the light looks on the park mornings. As dawn goes down to day, the trees are stained glass windows. Leaves transmit green gold as I come around a bend and the trees are backlit. I guess I won't be back.
Running away, realize I am the stupidest student I know. The Central Park Jogger. Should have known. Been prepared not to be scared. I sprint unsure if I'm running from feeling insecure in my city or insecure in their camera. In flight, I fight thoughts that this is a safe place. They have free jazz concerts here. There is a playground with kids. Their dogs get walked. I only ever skirt the edge of the park, always in sight of street, never deep in dense trails. But I will be on the 11 o'clock news as the Yale student foolish with youth enough not to know but to run the park. Not any more.
From the trees of Edgewood park, this isn't the word springing from the Bushes. Terrorism is a conscious, concerted effort to make you change habits, regard others, vote out of fear. This is different. This makes me change the of course of running, think twice about where I go, everyone I pass, look with no liking of any stranger, but there's nothing but individual anger and insanity behind it. The shootings, the almost abduction, this raping are not part of a plan to scare women in New Haven. So go about normal routine and talk it away. It is a city even if the power lines ride above the traffic, traverse the sky. Things happen but it's unlikely if you keep your head. Ride the minibus home two blocks from friends. Don't walk alone after dark. Don't run in the park. Go to work. Look over shoulder. Just be smart. Terrified.
Running away, realize I am the stupidest student I know. The Central Park Jogger. Should have known. Been prepared not to be scared. I sprint unsure if I'm running from feeling insecure in my city or insecure in their camera. In flight, I fight thoughts that this is a safe place. They have free jazz concerts here. There is a playground with kids. Their dogs get walked. I only ever skirt the edge of the park, always in sight of street, never deep in dense trails. But I will be on the 11 o'clock news as the Yale student foolish with youth enough not to know but to run the park. Not any more.
From the trees of Edgewood park, this isn't the word springing from the Bushes. Terrorism is a conscious, concerted effort to make you change habits, regard others, vote out of fear. This is different. This makes me change the of course of running, think twice about where I go, everyone I pass, look with no liking of any stranger, but there's nothing but individual anger and insanity behind it. The shootings, the almost abduction, this raping are not part of a plan to scare women in New Haven. So go about normal routine and talk it away. It is a city even if the power lines ride above the traffic, traverse the sky. Things happen but it's unlikely if you keep your head. Ride the minibus home two blocks from friends. Don't walk alone after dark. Don't run in the park. Go to work. Look over shoulder. Just be smart. Terrified.
