Below the Harbor
Pick an item from the list of oddities found in the New York harbor. Write a scene or story that imagines how the item ended up submerged there.
I recently read a New York Post article about the success of a cleanup project in the New York harbor, which I found interesting for a few reasons, one of them being that the New York harbor was the cleanest it had been in 110 years at the time the article was published in 2019.
Another reason was that divers working on the project found a number of odd items at the bottom of the harbor, including:
- "A dead giraffe, presumed to have escaped from a traveling circus, possibly at some point in the 1980s.
- A fleet of Good Humor ice cream trucks from 1969.
- A bag of lottery tickets from 2010.
- A 1968 Lincoln Continental.
- A mailbag stuffed with a human torso.
- A modern shipwreck lying on top of a 19th-century shipwreck.
- A grand piano.
- A homemade submarine (built by a local shipyard worker).
- Silicone breasts.
- A barnacle-encrusted Citi Bike.
- A robot hand.
- A freight train from 1865.
- An upright Formica dinette table, as if awaiting an underwater tea party.
- 1,600 bars of silver lost in a 1903 shipwreck."
For this week's writing prompt, pick one of the items from the list. Write a scene or story that imagines how the item ended up submerged in the New York harbor.
Post your response (500 words or fewer) in the comments below.
About Cassandra Lipp
Cassandra Lipp is managing editor of Writer's Digest. She is the author of Queen City Records, which tells the stories behind the indie record shops of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Her work has appeared in Greener Pastures, The Belladonna, Little Old Lady, Points in Case, and Ohio's Best Emerging Poets 2019. Follow her on Twitter @Cassie000000.
