Because the doctor knows Jane’s brain
is a time machine sucking her away,
the doctor tick-tocks her fingers
for Jane's eyes to follow.

A man lives inside the Janes’ brain 
because one day he pushed so hard 
from the outside to the inside,
he got stuck in there.
But, maybe the Janes’ brain made him up.

The doctor with the tick-tock fingers says
Stay here, Jane. You're safe.

When Baby Jane was four, a different kind of doctor 
saw a broken door between her legs. 
No, not a door. Her legs were closed 
butterfly wings, but he pushed them open—
the man did, and then that doctor did.
The wing dust falling off on fingers.
The Janes’ brain couldn't make that one up,
but that doctor only said No more bubble baths.
Baby Jane hated the plain water, but that doctor said 
now the redness would go away. 

Young Lady Jane used to cry but her mother said Why? 
What about, she said, but Young Lady Jane didn't know.
Then I'll give you something, her mother said.
And she did.

The doctor with the tick-tock fingers says
Stay here. Jane, you’re safe.

But the Janes’ mother was a switch,
and the father was a belt,
and a safe is a place to get locked inside. 

Young Lady Jane tried to cut out 
the man locked inside, she tried 
to starve him, tried to throw him up.
Baby Jane blanked his face away. 
The Janes didn't make him up.
The doctor with the tick-tock fingers says
Stay. Here, Jane, you’re safe.

The Janes’ eyes tick.
The switches and the belts,
the bruises and the welts,
the locked-up man
appear and disappear.

The Janes’ eyes tock.
The doctor says Jane.
The doctor says stay.
The doctor says safe.
Jane weeps.