Mary White

Madwoman in the Attic

—for Mary White

After the riding accident—

They stuffed me up in the attic

To shut my big fat Mouth

I was getting much too Uppity—

There at Emporia High School

Such a dull place to go to school

I told too many Feminist stories—

I even wanted to let the poor little

Negro girls to use the women’s john

Maybe once or twice was okay—

But soon Daddy Dearest thought

It was best to adroitly shut me up

A tragic riding accident would be—

The best way to handle me & my

How his Obituary got rave reviews!

As far as Big Daddy was concerned—

He wasn’t going to let his burgeoning

Plutocratic Journalist career be ruined

Certainly not by an Uppity Daughter—

With naïve Pretensions of Declaring

Equality of the Sexes & the Coloreds!!!

Mouldering in the Attic

“Mouldering in the Attic”—

Stuffed up there by Daddy Dearest

And snotty closet-case Lindsay

That’s where I was, honey—

Up there in the Red Rocks attic

Slowly mouldering my life away

John Brown was my all-time hero—

So undaunted, true and brave

Struggling for all the Emporia Slaves

All the brave Women out there—

Not the old G. A. R. haughty sluts

And D. A. R. hoity-toity drag queens

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah, girl!!!”—

I was just a little ahead of my times

They turned me into a Closet Case

Anyway, the dreary years dragged on—

They kept me hidden upstairs pretending

I was just a poor Madwoman in the Attic

When actually they kept me loaded—

Totally higher than a kite making me

Puff a hookah & become an Opium Addict