In/doors/ Quarantine/ Spring 2020

The obligation to be

In

side

Indoors

space    closing   

tighter    smaller   

as if   

protecting

Without knowing

the weight 

of  

the thickness

of  

its own 

walls

You find yourself 

again

In

the once

neglected chair

that has become 

overly familiar   

frayed

In

unexpected ways

The stove 

repeatedly used    

repeatedly scrubbed

The dust 

In 

rarely seen 

corners

now seen

now

a reflection of

your bad house 

keeping

You watch

through 

the window – the repetition 

of sunsets

as

light changes

moving from equinox to solstice

You make

phone calls

without 

touch

You listen

The city drained

of its 

sounds

no longer seeps

through cracks

In

window frames

Your plants grow   

Your nails grow

The thought is to 

rearrange 

everything

clean out closets and 

drawers

change

where you’ve been 

these days after days

remake

yourself

But 

your actual desire 

is 

to just wait

Do    

nothing    

at all


self portrait

Pam Butler is an artist based in Brooklyn NY. She was first recognized for her Good Girl Project (92-95), a street art postering project which consisted of nearly 300 different drawings Xerox-ed and then posted in NYC, with forays to Buffalo NY and Memphis TN. She has shown her work in galleries in NYC, around the country, and internationally. See more of her work at pambutlerart.com

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