Time Alone in a Room

The girl underneath my window
Is talking about Israel

She's on the phone
In the apartment
Underneath mine
And Israel

She's talking about Israel
Her boyfriend is going to Israel

Out the window
Across the street
Is a park
And people jog at the park
And this creates a lovely view
And so the rent is high
The rent is very high here
And I can afford it
Because Daddy pays
Daddy pays the rent
And I'm grateful

But I have nowhere to go
Not even to the park
Because when I go too far
I want to go home
Even if I just go to the lobby
To get the mail
From the mailbox
From that nice row of mailboxes
They have in the lobby
I feel...

Anxious

Like I should go back
Like I've gone too far

And I sleep too much
And too late
I sleep in
That's the expression
In
I sleep in
And it's...
Frustrating
But...

Daddy says
I need my rest
And he says
There's nothing wrong with that
While the girl down the hall
Sings because she's happy
Because she's pregnant
Because I can sense that
Because my other senses
Are growing dull

I now have an expanded sense of time
I can differentiate between seconds and nanoseconds
Better than astrophysicists
And I've done this
By spending time
Alone in a room

I've developed a wonderful sense
Of time
As time
Slips by

And so the joggers jogging
And the pregnant girl singing
And the woman crying
About Israel
All become little patches
On the ceiling
And one by one
They fall down
And when they land on me
I think of Daddy

Spilling coins on my stomach
Telling me to spend them
Frugally

He doesn't mind
That I've stopped telling time

Now he can find me now
Now he can find me whenever he wants me
And he likes that

That's why he pays the rent
So he'll know I'll always be here
Time and again
As time goes by
Time after time

Tick tock tick tock

So how can I leave, I wonder

How will I ever be able
To leave?