Frustrations mount, tensions grow,
Hands reach out ever so slow,
Trying hard for words to convey,
Tears come in silent display.

Eyes plead in desperation,
Screams instead of communication,
An unbridged gap, a missing link,
Prevents a child's need to speak.

Minds trying words to form,
To this spectrum I was not born,
What caused me to be this way,
Suffering social and communication's delay?

My heart loves, my hands feel,
Yet my world doesn't seem real,
People just cannot understand,
Needs and wants through voiceless command.

I wish that I could say to you,
"I'm hungry and I'm thirsty too,
Hold me in your arms so tight,
Sometimes I'm afraid in the night."

"My tummy hurts or my head aches,
I am sorry for making so many mistakes,
I try to do what you ask of me,
I just wish in my world you could see."

"All of these things I can't say,
Though I try and try every day,
My world is sad and Oh so lonely,
Pent up feelings grow ever more strongly."

Trapped in an Autistic World,
Words spin, twist and twirl,
Repetitive behavior, rigid routine,
Consistency are all in the Autistic Scene.

Tip toe walking like a dancing ballerina,
Flapping arms and meltdowns fill the Autistic Arena,
Too much energy, breaking and running,
Oblivious to danger yet intelligence that is stunning.

Lonesome is the Autism world yet many live here,
It use to be rare, now it's one in one hundred fifty I fear,
Is it genes, environmental or vaccinations?
What is a common thread among the Nations?

No matter the cause there is no cure,
I'll live in this world of that I am sure,
Lonely and unable to talk to you,
I'll try to do the best I can do.

Just remember each time a child misbehaves,
It might not be a parent's lack of skills engraved,
But a child Trapped in an Autistic World,
Where words twist, spin and twirl.

© 2008 Gayle Davis
Used with permission

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