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
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.