Polishing By Subtraction

So many amazing things happen on the subway: people sing, dance, perform acrobatic leaps. They eat lettuce from cookie tins, go pants-free, projectile vomit. I’ve seen mariachi bands, acapella doo-wop groups, black gothic cowboy guitar players. But nothing had prepared me for…a woman laying the perfectest coat of lilac nail polish. When I sit in the stillness of my home and attempt to polish my nails, the best I can hope for is to cover the entire tips of my fingers in polish (as if I had just dipped them in a bucket of paint) and then take away the excess with polish remover.