N a p a l
m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 3 : S p e c i
a l E d i
t i o n
L o n
g P o e m M a s t
e r p i e c e s o f
t h e P o s t b e a t
s
NANCY MERCADO
On
Broadway
Once more on my journey down Broadway from 107th
Street
I make my usual stop in La Embajada
Restaurant for that
First shot of coffee that transports me
To Mother’s kitchen in Ponce
The sounds of little Javier’s rooster
Just out back saluting the sun
85-year-old Doña Monce
across the yard calling
Looking for mother’s good morning
As I make my way down Broadway
Small hardware stores and delis
Open for business bristle
with shoppers
Spanish streams from radios
Streams from hundreds of mouths
Hurrying down the streets
People go about their sacred routines
Down Broadway
In the Silver Moon Bakery
A young French man
Kneads slabs of dough
Transforming them
Into warm inviting loaves
An olive-skinned Dominican girl
Arranges the window
Of Rona’s Dress Shop
As she might arrange
Her living room for guests
Behind the Famous Deli counter
Indian men smile revealing
Impeccably white teeth
Shimmering beyond their bronze skin
How beautiful they are
As I make my way down Broadway
I remember the winter it snowed 36 inches
Remember the man who chose to ski
Down the frozen avenue
En route to his first meal of the day
How I marveled at the sight of New York
Frozen in its morning and knew
I’d never see it this way again
I pass Lincoln Center on my way down Broadway
See Chagall’s masterpieces wave to me
From the Metropolitan Opera House
See Dante Alighieri standing
Amid tree canopies in the sun
See Arnando’s Afro-Cuban
band
Playing in the plaza
And dancers swirling round
The gushing fountain
And the wealthy filling
Balconies overhead
Raising their champagne glasses
Surveying the savage dancers below
Across the street I peek
At Lincoln Plaza’s marquee
Read titles of Australian
Italian and Japanese films
Stop myself from going into
The ice cream parlor next door
Where small oval tables made of metal
Are garnished with international ice cream eaters
Miniature art for sale line city sidewalks
A fortuneteller calls out for customers
From her corner there
A book dealer peddles his cherished works here
As crammed buses pull up
To squeeze one more person in for the ride
Going down Broadway
I pass Trump Towers’ mammoth
Silver globe perched in the clouds
Notice teetering cranes stories above
Another skyscraper going up
And below subway nomads surge out
From within their cave at 59th street
I arrive at the mouth
Of Central Park
Where bikers
Runners
Walkers
Lovers
coalesce
In an experiment begun long ago
There at the fountain’s feet I sit
There I rest and gaze in awe
Once more on my journey down Broadway
2004
[Used by permission of the
author.]
Nancy Mercado received her Ph.D. from Binghamton
University, SUNY and teaches in New York City. Most recently, she served as the
Guest Editor of Phati’tude Literary Magazine’s issue;
¿What’s in a Nombre?
Writing Latin@ Identity in America. A writer, editor, activist and
educator, Mercado was featured on National Public Radio’s The Talk of the Nation and the PBS News Hour Special: America
Remembers 9/11. Also featured in The Encyclopedia of Hispanic American
Literature (Facts on File) and inducted into The Museum of American Poetics, she is profiled in Latino
Leaders Magazine, as “one of the most celebrated members of the Puerto
Rican literary movement in the Big Apple.” Nancy Mercado’s work has been
extensively anthologized in award winning literary collections such as Powwow, American Short Fiction from Then to
Now, edited by Ishmael Reed and Changer L’Amérique Anthologie De La Poésie Protestataire Des USA published by Maison De La Poésie. She served
as an editor of the acclaimed underground literary and art publication: Long
Shot, for 11 years, and as the publication’s editor-in-chief for one of
those years. The author of, It Concerns the Madness (Long Shot
Productions) and the editor of if the
world were mind; a children’s’ anthology published by the New Jersey
Performing Arts Center, Mercado also authored 7 theater plays.