That Might Not Be Art

Krorg calls me over

To his cave

And says--

‘Art’

That’s what he calls it

Art

It’s some blood

From the Big Teeth

We found in the woods

And some crushed up berries

And tree sap

And he pointed to it

And said--

‘Art’

And I could have done that

I could’ve gotten blood

From Big Teeth

There was lots of it

And I know

Where to find those berries

And I know

How to scrape off

The tree sap

And I could take that all back to my cave

And smear it on a wall

And say ‘Art’

But that wouldn’t make it art

It’s just stuff

On stuff

On blood

On a cave wall

Is that what art is?

Because if anyone can do it

It might not be art

Art means special

And special means--

Only some people can do it

That’s why hunters are special

That’s why firemakers are special

That’s why the guy who eats pieces of all the food

Before the rest of us do

In case it’s poison

Is special

Because not everybody

Can do all that stuff

And honestly

Not everybody wants to

But everybody wants to draw on cave walls

And etch things in the dirt

And make things to wear

Out of leaves and Tusk-walker kidney skin

And we don’t let them

Because then we wouldn’t get

Anything done at all

There’d be no meat for meals

Or fire to cook with

Or clothes to wear

And Merg needs clothes

Because his skin is sensitive to light

And that lotion we invented to stop him from burning

Ended up attracting the Desert Wolves

We only let people do things

When they’re exceptionally good at them

Because otherwise

Wouldn’t they just be

Wasting their time?

And our time?

We each have a part to play--

Plant-grower

Child-bearer

Curse-lifter

Cave-Drawing-Draw-er

And we usually only need

One person

To do each of those

...Except child-bearer, obviously

We need way more people to do that

Since, allegedly, child-bearing

Isn’t as pleasant

As all the men try to assure

The women it is

But artists?

We don’t need any more artists

We already have Sloog

And he does a wonderful job

Drawing pictures

Of all the people

Eaten by Little Teeth Big Claws

What Krorg does is fine

But it’s nothing unusual

It’s nothing the rest of us can’t do

We just…

...Don’t want to

So it might not be art

Oh sure, it’s nice to look at

--Why I don’t know, but somehow…

...It is

And it certainly makes him happy

But is it art?

Is it anything?

I asked Krorg

And he said--

Does it matter?

And I thought--

Well

Maybe not