waves of purple met us when we arrived at her celebration of life
most were wearing it in some shade or another
there was grief
she had been twenty-five
young to be murdered
worse to be murdered while her children watched
they were three and four at the time
would they ever fully recover?
they were not in attendance
I had come for her twelve-year-old brother
he is Asperger, and has few friends
I am the school counselor
his classroom teacher and I had come together
to celebrate his sister’s celebration of life
short as it was
We label not only ourselves but others.
Multiple personality, schizophrenic, bi-polar.
Everyone fights for a seat at the Asperger table.
We all want to become something special.
Downing our valium and lithium pills at an alarming rate.
We are shaky and unsteady now; fuzzy thinking but content.
Because we have our labels, wearing them prominently.
Stamping our skin with tattoos of truth and valor.
We convince ourselves we are unique
When in fact, we are but a pack of minions
all vying for the same labels,
heading toward a sleepless night
Anxiety compounded upon anxiety
thanks to our ridiculous addiction to the news
Turn off the murders and rapes; we don’t need them!
But wait, maybe we do ….
to justify our labels.
the speedphone in your head
sparky and light trailed
as a dancer with closed steps
you open doors in the night,
sometimes a ghost, a lost thought
your pages are torn and mixed,
burnt as a nut, you`re a paperchase
of loose clues, brillant and wild,
running with the comets to dawn
an island full of shapes
patterns of bricks and numbers,
the thin voice of a bird
lost on a strange planet,
faces that bend under order,
nothing in line or perfect
watch your own dancing hands,
listen to the broken words,
you are deep in your own sense
till the world implodes,
a puzzle flying,a chair defeated,
a broken window full of stars
The Asperger syndrome : you will not speak,
you will not tell me about
fertilizer bomb. In a farmhouse blackwater
becomes a death chamber.
A toddler falls in a borewell,
you can still measure hypothermia,
the tilting of meteor saves the landfall,
stalking through the extended body.
What was the right thing in a chorus of protests
to underline the resilience of beaks and claws ?
It bugs the space and diameters of arguments
about the sweep of corruption in integrities.
It is very difficult to stay being whole amidst
the broken shards of bones. The dreams were
set in stones and water was rising.
Satish Verma
If any of you happen to be Netflix members,
you may want to put this on your DVD list.
I've never viewed a more touching film that has ever been presented like this.
It's titled Billy The Kid but it is NOT about the famous young cowboy legend.
It's about a high school boy who struggles with a condition
known as Asperger Syndrome.
Everyone can plainly see that he's unique, different from the majority,
but that doesn't take away anything regarding his endearing, sweet personality.
I just thought I'd share the above with all of you. It's a very inspiring documentary.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.