Frederick II was not a good guy
Holy Roman Emperor, 1194-1250 AD
No other way to say it he was a bum
A bum scientist if we dare call him that
With way too much power for sure
But just as the cause of science
Was advanced by Nazi experiment
We owe Freddie Two for his research
About our God-given language
Was it English, French, Italian
He got him some babies at birth
Don’t ask how I don’t know
But I suspect the worst
Left them in cribs comfortable enough
With foster mothers and nurses
Instructed to suckle and bathe them
But not make a sound nor smile
To learn which language
They would speak on their own
As they grew well they didn’t
Given the silent treatment
All of them failed
At speaking at anything at growing
They withered and died as if they had
Taken a pledge to frustrate cruel Fred
Not do his bidding
Harry Harlow of 1940s Wisconsin
Used baby monkeys to explore
The parameters of mother-love
Of contact and deprivation
Imagine having two mommies
One made of wire equipped
With a bottle for nursing
The other a towel wrapped like
A monkey mom with monkey face head
The infants would cling to the cloth mommy
Except to nurse from the bottle then
Zoom back to the soft mommy
Wouldn’t you overall Harlow showed
That baby monkeys raised
Under these deprivations
Grew up quite cockeyed never
Developed a proper monkeyness
Harry Stack Sullivan wrote a lot about
How personhood depended on
Being with others not just being
But forming relations interacting
Remove them and crippling loneliness
Takes over shunning induces horrible pain
Nobody needed much more explanation
Visit a dungeon of Freddy’s time
If you want to make a raving maniac of a man
Ignore him keep him in the dark
Pretty soon they can’t tell time
Their brains cease to work
Solitary confinement keeps you out of a fight
Makes you less able to manage
Brings you back to infancy
If all you had then was a wire mommy
You’re in for it Jack
When they set you free
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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