Hi folks,
It is high time I shared a poem from my book ‘InVerse Medicine’.
This one is about acquired disability and showcases how attitudinal and structural barriers can isolate the person and compound their struggle.
This wasn’t always my normal.
It isn’t normal for you either,
but it is my permanent.
It is here to stay…
a freak occurrence,
a chance encounter
with a vicious virus
that threw my normal
off kilter
– a mess of atrophied limbs –
while you cross your fingers,
and shy away
from making contact with me,
even though
I’m not contagious at all –
still, even your eyes
don’t look at me,
and you never call it
by its name.
I wasn’t born this way.
Perhaps if I had been,
I may never have discovered
that my newly acquired normal
is your abnormal,
and I might never have noticed
that your empathy
feels like pity,
and looks like reprieve.
But not for long, this reprieve,
because
it’s only postponement,
before your ability
melts away from aging,
and from over-confidence,
even as you design spaces,
and programs,
and whole countries
where access is able-bodied
and it lustily ignores
the fleeting nature
of your kind of normal.
Read more about my book here