When Even an Old T-Shirt Can Be A Work of Art
Where do you go with a title, a poster, a billboard no less,
that says:: Dentistry, State of the Art,
or some painting, gathering dust,
leaning like a crippled old man
against a basement wall,
unable to find a place where it can be seen;
or even that huge, scatter-bug thing, by Jackson Pollack,
that star of MOMA,
now accumulating the reputation
of being one of the predominant masterpieces
of Abstract Expressionism,
but suffering the grime of gratuitous criticism
and a jejune moniker like “Picture Number One”.
I mean, almost anything can attain prominence,
even predominance, like that, for instance;
or like that Apple One Computer,
which being “primitive”,
just sold at auction for six hundred thousand dollars;
Well then, how about an old T-shirt, a bit worn for wear,
and torn, but with the monogram, “President of the United States”,
or my photo of a discarded Hard Disc
that I enlarged: so both now hang, pompously, on my living room wall,
as though they are actually some kind of art?