10-Broome Street

Listen, Mr. Broome Street:

are you going to belong

to the Lower East Side or NoLiTa

or fancy-pants Soho?

Decide, oh narrow one,

snaking your way east-west,

west-east, spreading your horizontal

with some of your doors held open

by thighbone-big stones

during balmy summer afternoons.

Will you give yourself to sightseers

or to locals who gaze at you fondly,

the way they regard a pizzeria they love

that’s been part of the neighborhood’s heart

longer than Broadway was a trail

for on-the-move Native Americans?

Take a firm position.

Oh Broome Street, oh quaint one,

will you conform to the latest fashions

or will you stick around as you are–

for a while, at least?

Decide.