We Are Human Too

• Portia May, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2017

Adjectives so carefully chosen
Hung about her neck as if she were a slave about to be sold to the devil
Like knives, each with a blood-spewing result that could come about only through words
Coming out of mouths that consider themselves the epitome of correctness and proper judgement
Because this mob of needless torturers fail to realise that underneath bleeding skin and broken dreams lies a human being
A heart desperately pumping the ever-flowing blood that pours out of her self-inflicted wounds
Lungs that breathe and try so desperately to keep alive the very being that is daily told to destroy themselves
Ears that hear the constant verbal representation of a thirteen year old girl’s unmitigated hell
Legs that are forced to stumble into a place where she is not welcomed
And a brain that has been so violently shaken and torn that it is no longer able to feel happiness, releasing only chemicals that lead to her emotional detriment out of habit
And still the signs around her bruised neck hang, allowing no respite from her life’s bane
Just because of a diagnosis, a difference in development
“Autism” translates into “fool, retard, stupid”
Pointed out and laughed at
Characterised wrong, choked by stigma
Bruised by intolerance of imperfection

“We are human, too.”