It’s OK to talk to people
in the room that you don’t know.
It’s all right.
They won’t mind.

If you smile at a stranger
there is the faintest possibility
the stranger might smile back.
In New York
the possibility is faint
but there’s a good chance
that like you
they’re from out of town.
Nothing ventured,
as someone once said
– and he, too,
was not a New Yorker.

You can try anything.
You can dream anything.
You have the potential to do anything.
Take as many of these words
as you wish.
Some of them may work.