My Kind of Town
(The Universe is in your Hands edit)
Janet Kuypers
1/22/24
I stepped over many palace doorsills
in Beijing’s Forbidden City, negotiating
golden bars from 6 inches to a foot-tall —
they may have once kept rain and mice out,
but these bars were also symbolizing power:
the higher one’s status the higher the bar
people had to step over, not on, but over...
But then I left, entered the Summer Palace.
That’s where an older Chinese gentleman
walked up to me and asked,
in the best English he could muster,
where I was from.
I told him the United States,
and then I said Chicago.
That’s when this man’s eyes lit up,
and he said,
“My kind of town!”
And I laughed,
nodding my head in agreement
until he leaned in toward me and said,
“Frank Sinatra sang that.”
And I laughed again,
“Yes, he did,” I said,
because even though
this world is so vast,
we will always find ways
to connect with one another.
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