Nameless (poem about autism)

(Text to accompany the poem) • • To be on the autistic spectrum / is neither infection / nor disease / or a mixture of your 'deformities.' / It's not 'backward,' / Let's move forward please / because labels / and life / are like chalk / and cheese. / We are not orphaned genes / Scraps from what 'genetically best' took / Failures since we were foetal? / Take note, / we are not textbooks / we are people. / We are not oddities with locks and keys / Pigeonholed as comedies or / 'coded' anomalies. / We are not your intellectual properties. / We own. / We live. / We exist. / A multitude of preset myths... / so let me say this / audibly. / I have autism / but there is so / much / more to me. / • • [Editor: sincere apologies for all the clunky line endings expressed as / Hope to rectify soon with the next round of development - when funding materialises!]

Keywords: autism, autistic, autistic people, education, school, college, neurodiversity,