INCREASE-DECREASE

Yesterday I saw a rich white woman, wearing all white, and I’m sure, feeling all white walking down Lafayette with her daughter. Her daughter threw her arms around her mother, and begins to hug her tight, smiling lovingly. Her mother pushed her away…pushed her away…PUSHEd HER AWAY and said “Dont get me dirty!”

She sees me looking. She smiles to protect her pride. I frown to shatter it all over the pavement.

Maam, you’ll be begging for those hugs when your daughter is older. When she’s in therapy, or totally disconnected from you and your lifestyle. When she’s so ashamed of it all that she’ll dress in all black. When you write her checks for her rent in Brooklyn, where she drinks cheap beer and tattoos her ribcage, refuses to buy bras or anything full price, and rolls her own cigarettes. Dont worry, you’ll know all her friends. They’re all your friends’, children.

Thanks lady. You’ve broken another heart, and created another hipster.