Detail
Valium Doll
28 x 20 x 20 in
Mixed media: wood step stool, wood box, ceramic tile, hat pins, gold thread, spilled valium, post card, photos, a plastic bead doll my mother made. Text written on step stool: the anti-depressants my mother was prescribed.
2012
I
Mamma goes to Israel
for a reunion of survivors
is photographed at the Wailing Wall
with some Israeli Soldiers
and comes back crazy.
II
Mother went crazy long long ago
but it took even longer for anyone to know
now I'm afraid that the pattern was laid
in which both my sister and I were made.
III
Mommy doesn't love me
mommy doesn't care
she's outside on the sidewalk
pulling at her hair
sister's upstairs crying
the house is all bare
daddy's gone to look for work
but there’s none anywhere.
IV
Mommy doesn't love me
but I still love her so
I wish that she could see me
I wish that she could know
that we can go together
all the way inside
to all the lonely places
where we learned to hide
and come out together
both loved and unafraid
of all the lonely places
where we both were made.
© 2012 Rosa Naparstek. All Rights Reserved.
Appearing in “Innerscapes and Landscapes” exhibition, Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation. New York, NY. November 2021.