In front of freezing beach air, NATHAN’S glows neon, pink, and green while other lights from the central-subway depot glimmer phosphorescent. In this cold, what could be better than a steaming cup of tea? I remember that doughnut place outside the station like it’s a revelation, but you say that tea would be a distraction, and it’s impossible to get driving lessons from anyone, so instead of tea, we circle the boardwalk, learning to turn, how to brake, and accelerate.
All of a sudden, we see thin, stray cats, lingering near trash bins. Is it bad luck that black cats just crossed our path? But how could any creatures so wiry and weak have any power over people? Trying to avoid and downplay, I watch with a disturbed human heart. Its unbearable to watch these unfed felines, so we continue the aforementioned task in front of the beach and under the neon, pink, and green of this lit-up parking lot.
Considering the starving animals, I question how God could allow something like hungry or thirsty cats, but my mind moves towards a logical, quieting answer – maybe animals don’t have a soul, so perhaps, their starvation is different than our own, but as I look at these cats with their statures of hunger, hunched over, thin, and searching in trash bins, I’m not sure. Suddenly stopping the lesson, I ask if anything can be done to delay death that night.
I hope there might be a pet store nearby, but after a quick look, no such luck. All we have to feed them are fries. I open the window and throw them out, secretly hoping that the cats are picky, like the snobby felines in those Fancy Feast commercial because then I would know that those animals are more well-fed than they appear. But it does not happen that way, and as I call to them, they crowd around the fries, devouring them like sticks of meat. Now I know that their hunger is as real, like their souls, and they will do what they must to survive the night.
Ayesha F. Hamid is a poet and creative nonfiction writer published in Blue Bonnet Review, Philly Flash Inferno, Sheepshead Review, and Rathalla Review. Her full-length memoir The Borderland Between Worlds is available through Auctus Publishers at Barnes and Nobles and Amazon. Ayesha also has a full-length poetry collection called Waiting for Resurrection. She is a Poetry Editor at Ran Off With the Star Bassoon and an Assistant Poetry Editor for The Night Heron Barks. She is the Editor-in-Chief at The City Key.
Ayesha holds a Bachelor of Arts in French and A Bachelors of Science in Sociology from Chestnut Hill College, M.F.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Publishing from Rosemont College. She also holds an M.A. in Sociology from Brooklyn College. Aside from writing, Ayesha also loves film, travel, and photography. You can find Ayesha on twitter @ahamidwriter
Ayesha is a lover of cities, big and small.
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