Rented half-basement apartment in Greenpoint, New York, near Greenpoint Ave, living room or was it a studio?

On the corner, right by the subway stop of G train, 

I was coming to visit my Ukrainian friend who is also Russian female director from Moscow – Dina, 

I truly was excited to see her after a long while.

Brought her a cute pair of socks as a gift, or was it her who gave me a present?

I was thankful that the place had a kettle and collection of teas, 

tees tasted bitter in my mouth by the end of the evening even though we kept adding water and diluting them. 

Sure, it was cold, but that was of a little importance, 

we wrapped ourselves in some scrappy blankets and set near each other on a couch staring in the screen -

level of psychosis was slowly rising.

Cigarettes thankfully never ended that night, it was a miracle truly.

24 February of 2022.

Hard to remember how many hours we spent there together on that couch.

When I arrived it was still light outside and I left sometime before midnight.

We watched TV Rain on YouTube non-stop, expert after expert expressing their opinions on what does this all mean -  

level of paranoia was raising exponentially:

one never ending expert opinion.  

How will the economy be affected, will they actually achieve the goals, what are the goals, why is this happening, who is to blame, and where do we place ourselves now?

Amid this wormhole that was incepting somewhere on the border of Russia and Eastern Ukraine many lives were colliding. 

We did not know then what it’s like to live through the war time, our innocence was taken then during hours spent on a couch wrapped in a scrappy blankets in a rented studio apartment somewhere on Greenpoint Ave on the darkest day and month of year 2022.