Maya (pseudonym) is a 26 year old girl with intellectual disability and visits the preparatory class of the NGO where I work. She teaches me more than I can ever hope to help with her education.
***
She sits at the door as I draw her, attempting to capture her wildness
People say those people who don’t want anything big in life are losers.
They assume everyone begins the same.
You began without crying unlike everyone did when they were born
You changed colors like a chameleon, trying each one on before giving up yourself
To be human.
You doze off because of your heavy medication
People try to contain your wild energies simply because they cannot
Stand seeing you free. They try to manage you
You laugh at their madness and bang on the surfaces around them
To make them hear their delusions clang like chains around their minds
You don’t speak much, it is enough to wave from across time and space to similar souls who share your madness.
And it is enough they see. Sometimes reciprocate.
You sit at the porch of your one room house
Preferring not to participate in what is called the
Cage of family
Your brother steals money, your sister- love
From a different boy each day
Counselling? Your family is much too torn apart for it
She sits at the door as I draw her, attempting to capture her wildness
People say those people who don’t want anything big in life are losers.
They assume everyone begins the same.
You began without crying unlike everyone did when they were born
You changed colors like a chameleon, trying each one on before giving up yourself
To be human.
You doze off because of your heavy medication
People try to contain your wild energies simply because they cannot
Stand seeing you free. They try to manage you
You laugh at their madness and bang on the surfaces around them
To make them hear their delusions clang like chains around their minds
You don’t speak much, it is enough to wave from across time and space to similar souls who share your madness.
And it is enough they see. Sometimes reciprocate.
You sit at the porch of your one room house
Preferring not to participate in what is called the
Cage of family
Your brother steals money, your sister- love
From a different boy each day
Counselling? Your family is much too torn apart for it
And love too distorted to put things right
All day you sit and smile
You make friends with the silence clouding around home
You don’t mind dancing but there again people insist on meaning!
Rhythm, rules, context, purpose, propriety
Again you bare your mouth in that insane smile of rotten teeth
Reminding them – all will wither away
What is left of dance will be, just as in life – motion
Just let go. Let me be. Smile. Sleep...
All day you sit and smile
You make friends with the silence clouding around home
You don’t mind dancing but there again people insist on meaning!
Rhythm, rules, context, purpose, propriety
Again you bare your mouth in that insane smile of rotten teeth
Reminding them – all will wither away
What is left of dance will be, just as in life – motion
Just let go. Let me be. Smile. Sleep...
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