An Autistic Speaks

For Autism Acceptance Month

I have (more than) a touch of the 'tism

I grew up watching the world

Through windows and screens

Perpetually on the periphery

Like I was a nominal nobody

The last one picked

But the first to be picked on

My childhood was

Punctuated by ear-splitting sound

Screaming my head off

While the wind whipped around

With highway windows down

I went mute when frozen with fear

And shut down from overstimulation

I poured myself out into journals

When my song was trapped

In an enchanted shell necklace

Captured around other throats

Who want to lure abnormals to their death

I still much prefer my pen do the talking

Than pay my lips to do the service

But Autism Speaks hogs the mic

Speaks over those of us

Who can lift our voices in protest

And speaks for those

Whose words echo

Around their cavernous skulls

But stop at their throats

Non-verbal voices deserve to be

Uplifted and truly understood

Actually autistic people

Are often told to shut up

Because the neurotypical "experts"

Know us better

Than we could ever know ourselves

Sit in the stillness

Listen to the distant echo

Strain to pick up on the high notes

That we are attuned to for miles

You'll be taken by surprise

When you're not just pricking your ears

To the striking chords

Escaping your own lips

When the dust settles

After the BANG of an earshot

The sound of silence is deafening

And only then can you grasp

The resonant truth:

This autistic speaks for themself

April is Autism Acceptance Month

Advocate Educate Accommodate Include