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 Mar 2015 ann radford
The Bard
They crossed the sea
in hope for answers to their plea
for a better life they, could not see.
From Ireland they came
in their hundreds and thousands.
Whilst thousand more died back home.
Not knowing their future,
but not forgetting their past.
From the shores they spread,
past the mountains and to the plains.
We are still here
We who listened to the stories told by our grandfathers and grandmothers.
We who heard about Ireland since we were young
We who have not set foot on our long lost home,
Yet we, are Irish
We left not by choice,
some were kicked out, some were forced out, some couldn't get out.
Yet we have survived here,
But nothing, changes the fact that we are Irish.
We are the Irish Americans.
We are Irish in our blood but the green, white, and orange has been painted over with a coat of red, white, and blue
My grandma's parents came from the O'Riley clan and the O'Dowd clan
Beidh muid ag teacht abhaile
 Mar 2015 ann radford
The Bard
Some people say they can control it.
They say or the show that they only get a little hyper, a bit impulsive.
If only I were so lucky.
My mind ever drifting on a cloud of noises, movements, sights and sounds.
Everything around me s captured in my ears and eyes but there is so much that it's overwhelming.
My focus is like a dead branch against the stormy winds of summer.
It only takes a mild gust to send me bounding down.
I'm drowning In a sea of sounds,sights, and smells.
Some say that it's great I notice so much but I can't help feeling what I should notice, what I need to see, eludes me constantly.
Maybe I feel this way because I am waiting for that one moment, that single moment, that will fix a problem in my life which I feel is holding me back.
I'm not scared of not noticing something important because I probably have.
I just didn't notice that it was important.
 Mar 2015 ann radford
The Bard
I wear a shroud.
A shroud made of prescription slips.
A shroud of little orange bottles.
A shroud of oddly shaped pills, circles, ovals, capsules.
I wear this shroud to conceal my demon, my curse, and some say a blessing.
Without this cloak I'm a monster.
As a child I didn't have this cloak and I was seen as what I am, a monster.
Pointed at and whispered about.
Given sideway glances.
I was angry, angry at me for being me and others seeing me for being me.
This anger spread.
No longer directed at those who hurt me but abroad.
I was a child.
Mad at the world.
At age 5-7 I dawned my cloak.
At first it took getting used too.
I was told that I need fixing.
I was sent to a psychiatrist who taught me "How to be normal."
I abided my parents wishes and thought it was for the best.
I got older, and the cloak didn't work as well.
In middle school my cloak was transparent.
I had to deal with school now more than previously.
The stress wore my cloak thin and I was a ticking time bomb going off when something caught fire too close to me.
Then, after fights, meltdowns, tears, the tears of my parents, school stress, their stress things began to get better.
Things got better in school but not among people.
I still felt rejected, judged for my weirdness in the past.
Maybe it was guilt for the things I had done wrong.
Maybe fear, no it was fear.
Then I began to wonder.
I had asked myself this before but never paid much attention.
Was I afraid of what was under my cloak?
I was born without pills in my system.
The un medicated me is the real me.
I was never born with pills in my hand ready to be popped into my mouth.
But the real me scares people.
It scares me.
I twitch.
I fidget.
I can't sit still.
I look around all the time.
I get laughed at.
I get made fun of.
Or I did...Till I dawned my cloak....To hide from myself.

— The End —