Jim Pignetti 

In the 30th Avenue market in Astoria the broad sidewalk is filled with the people of the world... languages tumbling all around...Greek, Chinese, Spanish... stalking artichokes and olives... (the olives bought from open tubs, with the opportunity to savor each of the twelve varieties...my favorite, "Morocco")... the Korean, the African... the Brazilian... store windows revealing fleshy carcasses slung from hooks, schools of fish in mounds of ice, pyramids of citrus, red tomato globes, broccoli towers. Smoke and smell of grilled meat shaping the air.