JVD

Of those who rose a hundred floors
That morning to start, as they supposed,
What night would end, some were waiters,
Receptionists, maintenance workers
Whose tasks were far from elevated,
Who would in former times have been
Considered groundlings, of low estate.

In these? When fire blocked descent
They must have wished they had such place
Who thought of it–too late, they saw,
To give an eminence at odds
With what they did for what it was.
Not only were the mighty fallen
But the meek, betrayed by height.