From marble and granite to steel and glass,
we were discussing Rhina Espaillat’s On the Avenue in class,
was it 1950s or 1980s NYC and were the fifties
the city’s halcyon days or is it now, the 2020s,
the boroughs teeming with immigrants
from the round earth’s imagined corners,
Hasidim and Muslim, Haitian and Russian, as we
Italians and Irish in an earlier era were. Everything will
be ok or not, the recombinations which make
prediction and intuition fortunately hopeless
and each individual an experiment gone well or wrong.
On the avenue God speaks by spewing
toy and clothing stores, breakdancers and ice skaters,
the Brooklyn Navy Yard seen from the Brooklyn Bridge,
the skyline admired when my car broke down on the Triborough Bridge.
The numbers of us overwhelm, there exist powers
overwhelming for the human body and mind.
I don’t mind but I can’t make sense of it.
Gandhi said What you do may not seem important
but it is very important that you do it. By that what is meant?
Linda complained Why does God always have to be a man?
I replied He could be a she but She’s probably really
a Tyrannosaurus rex. I like to be in America!
Walking through
the old city
One feels the power
of this metropolis
The narrow streets are
filled with youngsters
running by
Aggressive merchants
ply their wares
And as we walk
we are swept back in time
Swept back to the
age of the Kings
When Jerusalem ruled
a small empire
Hasidim pass by
as do Arabs
This city is "such
stuff as dreams are made of"
I have been there!
TV on - outside cars rushing by
quckly on the
FDR drive
Another evening on the Lower East Side
The place radiates nostalgia
My grandparents now in eternity
came here for a better life
I see the murals, the House of Sages
the Foward building
I read the Hebrew letters
which say House of Study
Kids playing in schoolyards
Hasidim with furry hats
People walking dogs
Spanish people playing dominoes
The mailman comes by
hopefully bringing
more published poetry
Day morphs into night
Switch on T.V., meditation CD
A heavy sense of peace
descends on me
here in thsi most urban of neighborhoods
Fabled LES
Hasidim, Chinese, Spanish
Many residents of the area
fall into these categories
The streets are alive with memories
of pushcarts, peddlers, politics
The people of the Lower East Side today
revel in their history
You can get a great bialy, great egrolls, or
"arroz con pollo" in the area
Men sit out on benches playing dominoes
Children run happily under fountains
Scholars study in the House of Sages
When darkness covers the area,
lovers kiss under the streetlamps
As I head to my home on the Lower East Side
I feel touched by the magic
that has made this area famous
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