28.7. friday. goodnight berlin.

there are things here i couldn’t capture with my camera
somehow
it never seemed like the right moment to take pictures of the wall..
though i wanted to obsess over the golden angel
i never got around to it.
the people on the street
– i couldn’t bring myself to just point the camera at them and click
and it would have been inappropriate to even ask
(not to mention not speaking their language)
today i saw TWO naked babies in public
a few years old
walking
jumping
screaming babies
who wanted attention
naked
in the sun
parents eating ice cream
or sorting through whatever they had picked up from the mall
and walking home
whole tables full of men to drool over
all of these men would be hunters in the midwest
i couldn’t just take their pictures
but we could lock eyes
…
after leaving coco
i saw another table
the big bellied men in white shirts
standing up to say goodnight
they kissed eachother fully
one pulled the other’s cheek
and pat him on the back in a hug
almost shocked
my heart filled with joy at the simple love of friends:
this is a very turkish neighborhood
i’d almost forgotten that about kreuzburg..
i wish i could see this everywhere
though i was complaining to myself about the architecture here
“berlin doesn’t have enough of what i love about europe for me to want to live here”
… it does, it does
just not so much in the buildings as in the people
walking home from the tram
i saw the guy i’ve been staring at for over a week
i’ve never seen him with a shirt on
he’s definitely well into his 50s
well muscled
and tattooed..
tonight i thought he must have been a sailor
in berlin?
did they have coal mines here?
what could he have been?
a soldier?
eh?
his chest is so broad
the words across his belly i cannot read
— i dare not stare at him too long
so i can’t tell you the images on him
but he has smiled at me
always sitting in the sun with his friends talking
many of them have looked me square in the face and smiled
laughed
said something i couldn’t understand or respond to
here he was
one last time
walking by me
face screwed into some thought
cigarette flaring his presence into my attention for a parting glance
thank you berlin: good night.