Excerpt from poetry installation “The Professor is In”

By Charlotte Gruber

I create art whilst being unemployed.
I create art and still I am unemployed.
I create art because I am unemployed.
I create art although I am unemployed.

I am not an artist.

Am I?

Every doubt a little death.

Objet petit a,
Überlebenskünstler.

I keep at keeping alive.

I work as a mother always.
I work as a mother and still I am unemployed.
I work as a mother because I am unemployed.
I work as a mother although I am unemployed.
I work as a mother and hence I am unemployed.

I keep mothering a secret
silently nurturing shame.

I’m a single parent of a multitude, always.
And so are you.

Isn’t becoming our birthright?