Gail White
The Prison
Childhood is wretched, even if you're not
abused and have no scars to show in court.
Children are powerless and moneyless
and worst of all, they're short.
You have no transportation. Taller gods
carry you where they will. You have to go
to schools, to doctors, other children's parties,
whether you will or no.
No one believes your heart can really break.
No one respects the thoughts you bring from school.
Be cute, believe in Santa Claus, they'll laugh
and hug their little fool.
Escape as best you can. Jump from a cliff,
swim through a river, scale the prison wall,
run through a forest fighting off wild beasts.
At any price, grow tall.
Memory Aids
This is the paper that gives the date.
This is the kettle to boil the water.
This is a china breakfast plate.
This is a note to call my daughter.
This is coffee, I drink it black.
This is toast, and I eat it plain.
These are the thoughts I keep on track
To hurry them through my daughter's brain.
These are the things I need to say
To sound as usual on the phone.
The longer I keep my child at bay,
The longer my life is still my own.
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Mezzo Cammin is proud to announce that The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project, which will eventually be the largest database of women poets in the world, was launched on Saturday, March 27, 2010, at 6:00 PM at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Tom Field)
Visit Timeline. |
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| Gail Biederman: I use sewing as a form of drawing, as one way to alter a surface. Thread is my line, a physical presence that hovers in space in my installations. With both a cast shadow and an edge that catches the light, thread creates multiple realities, a jumbled mix of hard and soft, the solid and the ephemeral. | |
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