Day Thirty-four

Today's words:

Rumor

Theater

Result

Draw

Principal

Composer

There's an ugly rumor

Going around that they'll soon be closing the theater

For good. True or not, the result

Is the same: an empty house. You can't draw

An audience when peoples' principal

Thought is that the place is gone. Who was the composer

Of this, I wonder? The composer

Of such a rumor

May have a principal

Involvement in the theater.

Why else seek to draw

Attention to an inevitable result?

For it seems that's the result

Of more and more places here. A composer,

Usually a developer, looks to draw

Buyers with a rumor

Of "luxury" condos. Much better than a theater,

Whose principal

Goal is the arts. Any principal

In real estate will tell you: It's not the result

That counts, it's the money getting there. No theater

Can compete. So become a composer,

Assemble parcels, start a rumor,

And get an architect to draw

A rendering. At this point I'd almost settle for a draw,

But it seems the principal

Reason for living here is merely the rumor

Of wealth it gives off, and the result

Is people losing their homes and their jobs, while the composer

Of such horrors vents his anger on a defenseless theater.

I'm sure it's because he never made it in the theater.

Maybe he wanted to be an actor, but the luck of the draw

Wasn't in his favor. Or maybe a composer

Of music, not buildings. Regardless, his principal

Objective now is vengeance. With the result

Of destruction starting with a rumor.

New York real estate is like theater. A tragi-comedy whose principal

Draw is that the result

Sometimes defies the composer of the ugly rumor.