You’d think Autism Awareness month would be on my radar — but I remembered when I went on Facebook this morning.  Perhaps awareness needs perspective — some distance; when you live with autism, everything is up close.  Awareness is not cognitive but visceral. I would much rather have had a cognitive perspective than a visceral one, believe me.  But while I don’t feel like I need anymore autism awareness, perhaps I can contribute to the beauty of the community voice:

Autism came in April
Awareness comes in June

Weighted development –
diagnosis impeded
everything but beauty

Life reoriented to
severe boundaries – extends
disorientation

Second diagnosis
a loud and cruel echo
morose reverberation

Autism came in April
Awareness came in June

Speechless kids still try to talk
but you must learn the language
a pull, a context, a leap…

while brain waves cross, sensory
overloaded nerves ignite –
a neurological storm

The impossible is managed
not with miracles but mercy
extended to them, to me

Autism came in April
Awareness comes in June

© 2016 Laurel Archer