Good-bye, Harlem

New York doesn't make it easy to leave, especially in early summer. I took one last walk through my neighborhood, up to the circus of 125th St., where the crowds strolled along, pausing to look at the street vendors' wares from incense to commemorative Obama T-shirts, over to Morningside Park, filled with lazy birthday parties and family barbecues under the plush green canopy, and back to Frederick Douglass Blvd. where the high afternoon sunlight glistened off a parade of unhurried gypsy cabs. For me, this is my neighborhood at its finest. I'll miss it.