---

Donald Justice - On A Painting By Patient B Of The Independence State Hospital For The Insane
Work rating: Low

1 


These seven houses have learned to face one another, 
But not at the expected angles. Those silly brown lumps, 
That are probably meant for hills and not other houses, 
After ages of being themselves, though naturally slow, 
Are learning to be exclusive without offending. 
The arches and entrances (down to the right out of sight) 
Have mastered the lesson of remaining closed. 
And even the skies keep a certain understandable distance, 
For these are the houses of the very rich. 


2 


One sees their children playing with leopards, tamed 
At great cost, or perhaps it is only other children, 
For none of these objects is anything more than a spot, 
And perhaps there are not any children but only leopards 
Playing with leopards, and perhaps there are only the spots. 
And the little maids that hang from the windows like tongues, 
Calling the children in, admiring the leopards, 
Are the dashes a child might represent motion by means of, 
Or dazzlement possibly, the brilliance of solid-gold houses. 


3 


The clouds resemble those empty balloons in cartoons 
Which approximate silence. These clouds, if clouds they are 
(And not the smoke from the seven aspiring chimneys), 
The more one studies them the more it appears 
They too have expressions. One might almost say 
They have their habits, their wrong opinions, that their 
Impassivity masks an essentially lovable foolishness, 
And they will be given names by those who live under them 
Not public like mountains’ but private like companions’.
Source
The script ran 0.001 seconds.