We are all different…So why don’t they see it?
I’ve been doing some work with some girls with Autism Spectrum Condition recently and they have been amazingly perceptive about the reasons why they are left out, teased or ignored by their peers. All of them have talked about not understanding why all the other girls want to be the same as each other and why one minute they are as nice as anything to them, and another time nasty and cruel. (Two faced!) This is a poem we wrote together based on their comments.
Don’t they just have a point!
We’re all different, then why are they all trying to be the same?
We’re all different.
From the nails on our toes
To our nose, that’s how it goes
Don’t you know?
So why do you insist
On trying to persist
In being the same
Surely it’s a game?
I don’t understand
Why you call me weird
I seem to be feared
But you don’t make sense,
When you dye your hair
To look like her, and her, and her
Losing yourself
On an identical shelf.
Me, I’m different
In the wiring of my brain
But it would be insane
If we were all the same.
Autism makes sense to me
But you don’t, you see
You pretend you fit
Why won’t you admit
We’re all different
From the comfort we need
And the lives we will lead.
Let’s embrace who we are
And forget to compare.
(C) Lynn McCann 8.1.16
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.