ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

INVISIBLE

I see you try to look past me
as though I dont exist.
To catch my gaze is just too much to bear.
For if you really did see me,
and this here is the twist,
you'd have to know that I am really there.

Invisible, it is my name.
A man without a face.
Just something that you step around in fear.
It is to your eternal shame,
an absolute disgrace,
that you cannot accept that I am here.

See my heart, my soul, my mind.
I'm not so unlike you.
There's so much more to me than what I lack.
I may not walk, I may not talk
or look or sound like you,
but that is not the thing that holds me back.

It's your aversion of your eyes;
your look of sheer disgust.
How dare I breathe the same air that you do.
It's you who lacks ability
To see the likes of us.
The disability, my friend, belongs to you.

Copyright (c) Allan Cropper March 2015

Unfortunately spellcheck won't pick up the third line .."bear" and the line 14..."soul"


also unfortunately I don't understand what you are trying to say. It appears to be some sort of moral judgement but I cant understand the basis of this.

Thanks for picking up the spelling errors, Nev. Corrections made

I work with people with disabilities, and the poem reflects their frustrations at not having their abilities recognised, and how people will often ignore them rather than engage them. Moralistic, maybe. But a real concern to people with disabilities.

Allan

Well said Allan. Some years ago a friend of mine was struck down with early-onset Parkinson's Disease. He said the worst thing of all was to see old friends drop their eyes or look away when they met him. Although I wasn't guilty of that with him, it still taught me a valuable lesson which I've tried to apply ever since.

Cheers, Shelley.