Times Square, New York Poem by Raymond Farrell

It was decades ago
But I vividly remember
The first, and last time
I was in Times Square, New York
Me a person
From small town Ontario
Walking around
Looking at a cityscape
That up until then
I'd only seen on TV
I stood waiting
For the traffic light to change
At a busy intersection
And while waiting
I got distracted
Caught up gazing
At the nearby buildings
The light changed
The crowd surged forward
And I became like the rock
In the middle of a stream
Around which the current
Was forced to flow
But this was New York
No one it seemed
Was prepared to put up
With the mild inconvenience
Of taking a step sideways
To the left or right
They were intent
On getting across the street
And getting on with their business
So they began shouting at me
To get the f**k out of the way
The aggressive rudeness of it all
Immediately soured me on the place
And I've never been back since.