In Two Minds - Art Bears

She sits up all night, every night

Down in the kitchen, summer and winter

Dressed only in her nightdress

Seated at the table;

silent, thinking

Sometimes her head is in her hands

Sometimes she stares off into space

Sometimes she pulls her hair until the tears come

She is thinking, only that

This is the only time she has

We’d stop her if we were able

Her mother says, «Why are you such a bad girl

You used to be so kind and thoughtful,»

Her father says, «You know it only hurts your mothers.»

If she keeps doing it, they will have to call the Doctor

Night is the only time I have

The only time it is quiet

The only time people are not trying to confuse me

With demands

Given time, she can think it through

To the hollow heart of it

To the lonely lying that makes

Slaves of the children, in order

To conceal the guilt of the old

And their tragedy — for

They can look back on nothing, except

What they can say they own

She is all that makes them real

To exist they need her

That is why, in the quiet night

She tiptoes into the kitchen

Leaving the light blazing

Sits down at the table

In the quiet

With the tiny room alone and silent

Dark, floating in a sea of dark

Only light inside, and shee there

Sitting barefoot in her nightdress

Sitting at the table

Only thinking

When the doctor comes, and finds out

«She has always been a little strange,»

While her parents weep because

«She is clearly not herself»

When parent secretly conspire with parent

To discredit conscience and reject all criticism as

A shameful sickness

It is then the wealthy patrons of the state

With numberless murders in their hearts

Make a public acclaim of the morality

Of self loathing that

Commits one more