The Secret Society

Though rare,

We are there to be found
If you know where to look.
We blaze a spectrum
From palest sun-tinged straw,
Through cool amber, warm orange,
Fiery red, burnished brown
To glowing chestnut.
Subject to the same insults
And saddled with the same clichés,
We are in fact unique and proud.
Part of a secret society,
We look twice when we encounter one another;
Give shy smiles of recognition,
Glances of understanding and
Nods of solidarity.
As a child,
I shrank from the sun
And from the attention.
Now I embrace both;
Cling to my identity and hope
That age will not render my membership void.

Parallel Universe

Brave, bold, stark, strange new world.
Without an orientation day,
I was thrust into a parallel universe
Which I'd barely acknowledged before.
Thrown through the door that has now
Melted back into the walls,
I stare through frosted glass
At the other world—
The one I lived in.
Once, I was a stranger to this place.
Some language lessons might have been useful.
Now, I struggle to speak and advocate
And translate for my friends outside.
There are others here, but
We rarely meet—
Keeping our heads down
And our feelings contained,
Apart from the odd sympathetic nod.
I feel so bad for them
While trying to minimise my own reality.
I'm a different person here
And long for my other life.
I know that in weeks or months,
I'll somehow escape,
But nothing will be the same.
I'm expected to master this;
To learn the terminology and
Act stronger than I feel.
I'm bluffing it, but don't want to stay
Long enough to become an expert;
Toughness eroding away feelings.
People do try to call me
But it's so hard to talk to them
When I am in here
And they are out there.

Revolving Door

I've stepped in, and then out

Of this new role;
This new reality.
In and out; in and out.
Only this time, I've got myself stuck
In the revolving door.
How did I end up here
With no real prospect of return?
As the world moves on,
I'm caught in a state of
Perpetual motion,
Going nowhere.

Identity

Who do you see?
The abled one who can’t
Or the disabled one who can?
Two different sides to
The same contradictory coin.
It all depends on your perspective.
From the vantage point of she
Who looks like one,
Behaves like the other
And aspires to be a superhuman
It is impossible to tell.