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TIM ANDREWS Nov 2023
Sometimes I just want to be normal
I want to stroll over to the pub
And chat to a guy I know
And when I want to leave
I shall go

I shall walk out into the sunlight
Stretch my back and get into my car
Put on my music loud
And drive as fast I can
As fast I’m allowed

It will take twenty minutes or so
To reach the station in time
I park and watch a disabled guy
Limp to the ticket machine
I thank my lucky stars
That it’s him
Instead of me

You see me as you leave the train
You smile in that familiar way
Demure and kind of formal
A smile that a wife
Would give to a husband    
If he was normal    

Yeah, normal is what I’d like to be
Nothing special, just as before
A man who could hold his head high
A man who could sing with The Beatles
Tell me why
2023
Zywa Jul 2023
Disabled people

evolve, as human beings --


they become braver.
Novel "The Good Apprentice" (1985, Iris Murdoch), chapter 2, part 6

Collection "Unspoken"
George Krokos Apr 2023
I seem to have aged twenty years over the last two
especially since turning seventy - a personal view.
From the outbreak of the ****** virus two years ago
there's been a gradual decline in health for this I know.
Although testing negative in the last week of November
other health issues have been cropping up in December.
I somehow think that my time may be coming around
for where the body is to be laid to rest in the ground.
Morbid thoughts such as the above are dominant today
and with some people they don't easily just go away.
In my particular case my right side has been affected
and hobble around like some disabled person detected.
I wonder how long it'll be before I won't be able to cope
with doing all of those various things that range in scope
from washing and cleaning to the other domestic chores
which need to be done on a regular basis and time scores.
Unless I can afford to pay for someone to help with it all
if circumstances don't improve and my back's to the wall
I may have to consider going into an old people's home
or in some place where you're restricted to freely roam.
Another possibility would be to invite someone else in
that's compatible to shack up with and share the 'load-in'
or even perhaps the other way around that is practical
without being negative and deemed unjustly skeptical.
Someone in whom similar interests and ideals are found
all those things that are decent, life enhancing and sound.
Already it's getting to the stage when I'll need to cut my hair
something I used to be able to do by myself in the past there
but now I can barely raise my right hand up to my head
and the whole thing is a procedure I'm beginning to dread.
-------------------
As everybody gets older and experiences the change
they may notice their movements are becoming restricted in range.
_______
Written in December '21 describing one of the main reasons I haven't posted anything on HP for quite a while. Please say a heartfelt prayer and send a kind thought for me and others in the same boat. Thanks to all for reading.
saranade Jan 2022
physically I have no symmetry
and it doesn’t even bother me
my physical state is electrical
and internally I am symmetrical

a love so big it's my counterpart
symmetrically matching my flesh parts
an existence created as a work of art
able to outsmart any black heart

understanding this duality
is the best of you loving the best of me
and I believe you will get there eventually
to your own symmetrical mentality
taking on the construct of what is socially deemed as beautiful
Einez Mar 2021
Did you know I like to dance?
You do not, I’m sure.
For how can a person who can’t even walk
dream of something bolder?

But I love how my muscles breathe
and how my soul flows
when I spread my arms and
let myself go.

I like to let my arms become the limbs of a willow,
let my legs become the wings of a bird,
let my body become the stream flowing towards a river,
let my soul be taken to the free sea

Life has placed me into a small glass
barred from the outside ocean that promises freedom.
I could only watch through the transparent veil
while my flesh bound me to the ground.

But one day I’ll fly, I know it
I feel it in my blood.
One day the glass will shatter
and I’ll dissolve into bubbles
unchained from pain.
LEGEND POETS Jul 2020
“He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,
And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,
Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park
Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,
Voices of play and pleasure after day,
Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay
When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees
And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,
—In the old times, before he threw away his knees.
Now he will never feel again how slim
Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,
All of them touch him like some queer disease.”
Excerpt From: Wilfred Owen. “Poems.”
Poetic T Feb 2020
Your like, look at the bloke with no legs,
      I be like,  I can run faster than you mouth.

Yes I many be stumpy and do these shorts
      look big on me, but I'll never be shorter
than your short mindedness.

Running your gob like your mouth,
                                                   matches your shoesize.

Dam why would you even admit that..
  well I haven't got height but boy I have length

not like you...

Do you shop at baby gap for then tiny toes,

I'll always be higher than those belittling
                                                      ­                others.
for there short term gratitude.


My strength isn't vertical,
its that I can stand taller
              than all the misgivings that others
stigma me with.

Before they realise the truth,
that  is I can see a lot
             more truth than you can,
the taller they are the more noise

                               they make when they fall.
Peter Hark Jan 2020
So I was taking lil Tyler to school
and I got to meet one of his friends!
Tyler was so excited to introduce me to him,
but that poor little babe!
He was in a wheelchair!

Bless my son's heart for looking past this kid's...
um....
Well you know it takes a special kid to have a crippled friend!
Wait
I mean
Not special! My son is not special
No, wait, I mean he ain't SPECIAL special
You know?

Anyways, so I met his friend and I'm not quite sure what to do here
I say
HELLO I AM TYLER'S MAMA
and this little kid looks me dead in the eyes and told me
"Hello ma'am, there's no need to yell"
I was in awe
He didn't sound handicapped at all!
I mean I didn't know if he would be able to understand me
But he did!

Who would have thought a wheelchaired kid
could speak and think just like any other kid who wasn't gimpy!

I am just so so proud of my son
for looking past this poor victim of
um...
deformities...
Cuz you know it's probably good for the disabled
to have a regular normal friend like my son!

Hopefully my son can make that kid happy
you know since people like that usually have such sad lives.
Golly I am just so proud of my son for taking pity on that kid!
I am such a good mother!
THIS IS NOT SERIOUS. I DO NOT PERSONALLY AGREE WITH SLURS OR OUTDATED LANGUAGE USED IN THIS POEM, IT IS BEING USED TO SHOW HOW RIDICULOUS ABLEISTS SOUND.
Peter Hark Jan 2020
When did your symptoms start?
Listen doc, it's a funny story
I thought those 'symptoms' were normal
they've been here since I can remember
The question you should be asking is
when did I realize the symptoms were a problem?

When did you realize the symptoms were a problem?
I'm not fully convinced all of them are so bad
yeah I could do without the pain
but what you call my disability
I call my special abilities
Who else do you know can tell the weather with their body?

When did the pain start?
pfft I'm not sure
It started out so quiet
and then began to grow
as time goes by
I begin to realize that the pain
is the only constant in my life
but don't worry Doc
it only hurts when I'm awake
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