At Newark Airport I ask a woman standing in front of a ticket machine if it’s for the Airtrain. She doesn’t respond. It’s been a long journey, maybe I’ve forgotten how to put sentences together. I ask again. She turns and says, “I’m having a conversation.” (I did not see her earbuds.) “I didn’t hear a word you said,” and goes back to the machine. No “I’m sorry, could you repeat it?” No aggression either. Just a light but nonnegotiable brush-off. Who are you to intrude into my private world and interrupt my private conversation with an invisible person happening in public space? The way you swat away a fly that’s buzzing around you—annoying but not worthy of acknowledgment or even the effort to kill.
a Kind of Refugee / 31.08.2022
a Kind of Refugee / 31.08.2022
a Kind of Refugee / 31.08.2022
At Newark Airport I ask a woman standing in front of a ticket machine if it’s for the Airtrain. She doesn’t respond. It’s been a long journey, maybe I’ve forgotten how to put sentences together. I ask again. She turns and says, “I’m having a conversation.” (I did not see her earbuds.) “I didn’t hear a word you said,” and goes back to the machine. No “I’m sorry, could you repeat it?” No aggression either. Just a light but nonnegotiable brush-off. Who are you to intrude into my private world and interrupt my private conversation with an invisible person happening in public space? The way you swat away a fly that’s buzzing around you—annoying but not worthy of acknowledgment or even the effort to kill.