Acquiring Adulation

You were like the proud king lion, Strong with thick main, No hair out of place deliberately. Constantly parading by your pack; Commendation stood tall in there, No questions, phraseology or rubs, The podium harmonised plans, To scrub up for an alighting, Before medium light settled; Hereward stood better than the rest, And all needed to agree with you, Then you roared at me with jesting jaws. You were like a bird, Not specifiable, Except by the RSPB, In a crowd which could only brake, Under a focused eye, One son too unstable, Flying through the clouds, In a flock, Only falling for a reason. You were like the hawk’s eye, On me, all the time, relentlessly, To see if I wanted to follow, Or else love the arm amputee; My friends were not yours, Your mind was not mine, I was your perusal, but I was also your feed, To sicken or to satisfy. You were like the bear, Dangerous because you swear, Calling people skanks, Just for walking able-bodied; Separation has its faults, And Hereward students, Were only assisted anyway, To love able-bodied people, For their sameness to us, In mind, body and fashion, In heart, beliefs and views, In vision and in choices. You were like the sheep, Most truly, conclusively, With secrets and shyness, Insecurities filled your vision, Until the leader in you died: You resided within your norm, Of wheelchairs being normal, Mounting the ewe in incest, To your sacred inside. But you were frightened inside really, If the truth is to be told, Of enrolling in Coventry University: Your Hereward lane, Of educated brains, Of medical people and care staff, Of other disabled students, Who had been in physio like you, Made you recline into your sleep, Didn’t let you live or jirate. But you were my sheep, And you lost your white coat.