Seeing Broadway

Is it the Broadway we want to see? Bustling theaters, sidewalks filled with tourists that line up with their pre-purchased tickets, the costumed characters harassing visitors for a photo.

Is it the Broadway we see? Empty streets and sidewalks, darkened theaters, the cavernous echo of a once bustling midtown.

Is this the Broadway we will see? The growing masses of theater-goers, lining up under the now-lit marquees. The growing traffic filling Time Square. The growing congestion on sidewalks, which no New Yorker will ever admit that they missed, and hoped to see again.

frog choir

“the lamb lies down

on Broadway…”

https://youtu.be/5pteh5hdZlg

for Colleen’s 2020 Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge No. 179, #ThemePrompt

and dVerse Poets’ Haibun Monday: Meet Piet (pubtended by Kim Russell)

The Pub is open! Come join us!

*Piet Mondrian, ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43, moma.org*

Comments

4 responses to “Seeing Broadway”

Frank Hubeny

May 26, 2020

What we complained about a few short months ago we miss today.

LikeLiked by 1 person

kim881

May 27, 2020

I like the way your haibun is structured by questions, Frank, the different views of Broadway, and the way the pandemic has changed it. I especially love the ‘cavernous echo of a once bustling midtown’, as if the place itself wants to remind us of how it once was. Thanks for the blast of Genesis, they were a favourite band of mine when Peter Gabriel was still with them.

LikeLiked by 1 person

memadtwo

May 27, 2020

The hope is something more balanced…we shall see. (K)

LikeLiked by 1 person

Björn Rudberg (brudberg)

May 27, 2020

I wonder how people think when they have a deserted city all to themselves. or the beach or anything at all… I feel like I have gone from city dweller to villager in just a few weeks.

LikeLiked by 1 person