{"id":12270,"date":"2022-12-15T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=12270"},"modified":"2022-12-14T17:19:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T00:19:28","slug":"270-park-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/270-park-avenue\/","title":{"rendered":"270 Park Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a><em>Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer\u2019s voice on the page.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>270 Park Avenue<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>By Karen Handyside Ely<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">270 Park Avenue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Crowed sidewalk. Manhattan energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Staccato heels slap on the pavement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Collars pulled high to shield numb earlobes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Heads down, eyes forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">We are missiles on a mission<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">as the flinty sky threatens snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">A teeming line of ants, racing the storm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">No exit ramps on Park, just a<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">continuous flow of determined arrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">All in a hurry<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">to beat the flurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Up ahead, one woman stops<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Creating a ripple, a log jam,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">startling the herd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Bending down, she speaks in warm puffs<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">to the man shivering on the curb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">They exchange words, unheard but plainly visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Breath bubbles above their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">She hands him her coffee<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">still steaming in her to-go cup,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">and walks on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Movement begins anew, ever forward, but<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">smiles appear on New York faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">A random act of kindness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">warms even the most hurried heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Karen Handyside Ely<\/strong>&nbsp;was born and raised in&nbsp;Petaluma, California. She delights in difficult crossword puzzles, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and traveling with her husband, James.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Karen has been published in several&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/publications.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Write Spot Books<\/a>: The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries, The Write Spot: Reflections,&nbsp;The Write Spot: Possibilities,&nbsp;The Write Spot: Writing as a Path to Healing,&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Write Spot: Musings and Ravings From a Pandemic Year.&nbsp;All available at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Marlene-Cullen\/e\/B07ZYNGC99\/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon<\/a>&nbsp;and your local bookseller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer\u2019s voice on the page. 270 Park Avenue By Karen Handyside Ely 270 Park Avenue Crowed sidewalk. Manhattan energy. Staccato heels slap on the pavement. Collars pulled high to shield numb earlobes. Heads down, eyes forward. We are missiles on a mission as the flinty sky [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-write-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-3bU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12270"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12282,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12270\/revisions\/12282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}