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THAT'S NOT SURVIVING
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ABSTRACT POEMS
That's not surviving.
You think that working in a museum on
a busy day in the summer,
a day when we get 1,600.
You think that's surviving.
That's not surviving.
You think that it is
a group of half-naked people running, fighting it out
on an island for $1 million.
You do.
That's not surviving.
1. A life with 100 surgeries or so, everything you need, some extra things, plus several thrown in for the fun of it.
2. Getting a machine that moves your arm up and down and up and down and up and down, again and again and again, and having to go to school like that, and dealing with the associated problems-including a math teacher commenting on it, every, every, every, day.
3. Missing an author you really wanted to see, because you were in the hospital.
4. Not going on an 8th grade overnight trip, something you really wanted to do, because of your disability.
5. My personal favorite, dealing with questions and questions and questions by children about what happened to your face, arms, hands, fingers, why they look big, etc
and dealing with other comments that you look funny, weird,etc and children who are scared.
That is surviving.
I have a real idea that this is of personal experience Chris. I read it to my husband Hersh. He had lots of these same types of things come to him as well. Yes, you are a survivor as is Hersh from the polio, as we all are, or try to be. You just remember that the body is not what is the real person. The heart is who you are. From what I have seen of you, you are a pretty fantasic YOU!
Blessings,
Lesa and Hershel Gay