On Broadway
(for Laura Nyro: RIP Dear Muse)
(for Laura Nyro: RIP Dear Muse)
itchy taxis zaggin
licorice windshieldwipers honkin,
the unforgiving rain
washin out The City’s purple green stars
red green planet afloat down lower Broadway
where Madison smiles hailin her lover,
stooped stoned over some jones st. fire hydrant
chompin juiced strawberry taffy:
oh sweet july!
and Laura’s soprano perfect pitch
wails floatin over East Village boarded up record stores,
where winos and quakers
toast these imperfect Manhattan heavens
down lower Broadway,
where stars celebrate stars,
where hustle still rules for lonesome revolutionaries
hostess cupcake users,
where wall st bankers give no crap tippin lonely waitresses,
where young boys skip school
memorizin 12-string guitar chords
on Broadway,
where dancers jitterbug over sidewalk cracks
parade outside radio city decked out in scarlet sequence,
where Jersey runaways search for their souls
exchangin one another for looking glass miracles,
where foreign film producers donate hot dogs and knishes
to the folk singer’s union
this seminal Broadway she sanctified
umbrella’d and radiant under NY’s purple sodden stars,
the red green planet exhalin her CitySong:
“JulyMercyOnBroadway”, huh!
Miami, FL
Spring, 2013