FOUND by Matt Conway in Manhattan, New York City, New York
I found this on a bench while waiting for the Lexington Ave. subway. It’s so carefully crafted and the sentiment rings so true, that I had to pick it up. Oddly, it’s drawn on the back of a truck driver’s pay stub, which I think somehow adds to the authentic feel of it. My girlfriend wouldn’t tell me if she was for Clinton or Obama, but she’s clamped onto this bit of ephemera, and says it’s a good luck charm for her (and a vocabulary-builder for both of us, in more ways than one).
FOUND by Michael Hearst in Brooklyn, New York
I found this photograph on filthy floor of the F Train while riding between Jay Street and Bergen Street in Brooklyn. It was just after midnight and I was almost too tired to pick it up. But then, a couple stops later, I realized I was still staring at it. I knew what I had to do. I reached over and peel it away from the grime left behind by thousands of New York City shoes.
FOUND by Carol Kolb in New York, New York
I found this note on the ground in a subway station. Here’s what I love about it: 1. It makes one queasy to see someone with fifth-grade writing skills talkin’ nasty. Now, I pray she isn’t actually in fifth grade but the loopdy-doop handwriting doesn’t plead the case she’s not. Spelling-error-prone sex talk reminds you that these people are procreating, not you. 2. We’re chugging along in the letter– friends, friends, want to be friends– and then she drops the bomb. Awesome surprise ending. 3. It’s 2003 and the little ladies are aggressive. This note is evidence that today’s young females are finally making their presence known in the previously male-dominated field of beggin’ for it. Damn. 4. Like many great works, there is room left for interpretation. The debate rages on in my own office. Now we know she wants him inside, yes, but all the only-friends part…. is she really asking for no-strings-attached sex? Or was the friends-only assertion one that subsequent paragraphs negate? Was all that just a clever literary technique to draw the recipient in, a nod at innocence and protocol, a set up for the revelation of her true intentions? Does she, in her heart, want to date this boy or does she truly only want, you know, to feel him inside of her? We will never know.
