The Mirage In The Mist

Can you hear them? Can you see them?
The people in his head
That persecute his every move
And haunt the road he treads

Illusions in neural pathways
Apparitions of his mind
The ignis fatuus that burns
So bright he swears you’re blind

Can you gain the insights he believes
He has much like a gift
Yet which evade your reckoning
In stark paradigm shifts

For though to him these things are real
In your reality
They’re figments of imaginings
That you and I can’t see

But does that support or uphold
Him on this path he leads
Abused by all who laugh and mock
As slowly his heart bleeds

And is it right we judge and scorn
This man whom God has made
Leaving him in his wilderness
Confused; alone; afraid?

For though his thoughts seem abstract and
Beyond perceptual grasp
Let’s more so offer compassion
Give him a hand to clasp

Let’s see the man behind the mask
The person who exists
And with cognisance burn away
The mirage in the mist

  

Advertisement

Disability

When you have a disability
And a ‘hidden’ one at that
It’s not so much what you can’t do
That leaves you feeling flat
But the attitudes of others who
Just twist and turn the knife
With jibes and nasty comments that
Can ail and add more strife

The lack of understanding and
The fear to comprehend
The void of pure compassion or
Aversion to befriend
The cowering from all contact lest
The blame – indignity
The failure to see past the mask
Of disability

But those who stand out from the crowd
Who smile and take the time
To say hello or shake a hand
Tap out a different rhyme
That uplifts and renews all faith
In pure humanity
For smallest feats make largest steps
And mean the most you see!

English: A collection of pictograms. Three of them used by the United States National Park Service. A package containing those three and all NPS symbols is available at the Open Icon Library (Photo credit: Wikipedia)