Joanna Gilman Hyde

The Tomato-coloured Couch 8:00pm

My Mother told Me I couldn’t carry a tune

so She put Me in a crinkly black tutu

& expected Me to dance

I was the clumsy conundrum

My Teachers couldn’t figure out

I was Cinderella in French

& Teacher’s Pet in Junior High Science

I didn’t like High School

with One Peculiar Friend

Who wanted to get high

at lunch

My Mother put Me into Her College —

a small liberal arts school in up state New York

where I took all the art I could get

& transferred into Cooper Union in New York City

After graduating I decided

to paint the most visible roof in the world:

#5 World Trade Center

& was given permission by The Port Authority of NY & NJ

In 1984 I signed My Name

to the ten-thousand square-foot canvas

in three-foot high letters

I wore a crinkly black skirt

filmed by German Television

& three decades later

Self Organizing Galaxy

is on You Tube