Because I sat around
Reading Joyce and
Wallace Stevens and
Shakespeare and spent
Time checking out
Museum shows and
Galleries and walking
Up and down the streets
Of the city I had
A superior attitude
And even thought
I was hot shit
Compared to pawns
And poor assholes
Who had to wear
Suits and lug
Briefcases around
And sit in cubicles
But of course I was
Just the super vacuuming
The hallway rugs
Mopping the lobby and
At the tenant’s beck
And call and also
Felt put upon
And embarrassed by
My lowly position on
The ladder of success
Being right near the
Financial district and
The World Trade Center
And all that
I was convinced I was an
Artist of some kind
And there’s nothing
Better or higher
On a different ladder
Than that I thought
A woman who was a
Curator at the Whitney
Lived on the top floor
Of the building with a
Commodities broker
One day when I was
Tying off a tube
Of trash I was inspired
By those long industrial
Metal compactor trash
Bag ties and saw
That they looked like
Long spirits drifting
With the large loop end
As the head and the small
Loop end feet flowing
Out behind and I got
To work creating
A spirit world of
Garbage ties drifting
Tacked to a board
Down in the compactor
Room of the sub-basement
My studio where
I worked away oblivious
To the smell except
When now and then
A bag of kitchen trash
Or cat litter came
Crashing down I’d
Look up for a second
Then get back to
Work on my installation
Of lost garbage tie
Ghosts I almost
Believed would
One day
Be displayed
In the Whitney Museum
of American Art
***
Dan Hubbs worked as the superintendent of 258 Broadway from 1980 to 1984. He is a father, a librarian, a songwriter and a banjo player in a string band. He is currently finishing up a novel based on the early life of bare knuckle boxing champ John Morrissey.
Amazing post! keeps it up posting another one!!!!
Your poem proved you are an artist (of the superior kind) A poem that I’m sure will touch off a wellspring of memories. Waiting for more touches of Grace .
Dan Hubb’’s literary description is bliss!
Excellent post, Room of the sub-basement.