HEY JOE

joe said
I hate Jimi Hendrix
Joe said
he ruined my name
Joe said
Jimi Hendrix
Jinxed me
Joe said
I would have been famous
Joe said
If it wasn’t for him
Joe said
I’m tired all the time
Joe said
My head
Joe said
Feels like spaghetti
Joe said
I could have been a poet
Joe said
I could have been a writer
Joe said
I could have been a singer
Joe said
I was meant to be somebody

 
JOHNNY

They sat in rings
that looked like charcoal
they were no apparent age
no fingertips that leave prints
in the morning
they would not leave their room
in the night
they would gently open their door
and walk outside

I would watch them
walk across the street
not speaking to one another
as though they were in
the same place
in the same world

when they sat there
they talked
quietly
in a monotone that sounded
like it was hard to speak

one night some sat in
different places
one of the boys began crying
in the most horrifyingly sincere way
I wasn’t sure if someone hit him
his mother just died
or what

but as I watched
the pieces seemed to fall together
immediately after he was crying
they all moved back into their
original seats

what I saw there I will never forget
a sensitivity so powerful
it was not only paralyzing
but it left one unable to communicate

I’ve never understood what is so
difficult for something so small
to be in that much pain
I always wondered how people
would react if they woke up
one morning and there was no longer
a sun in the sky

to me that means nothing
if anything it only shows
how arrogantly dumb we are

when the people that are mocked,
land labeled with parents who wish
they could hide them behind a mask

soon those children will no longer be allowed to
be born
and nobody will understand the simplicity
of such emotion

but still the movies will continue
to come out
the actors will get their Oscars
simply because
and you should know this
every child that is autistic
has a hidden brilliance
some can do math problems no one has done before
some are composers
some can know the numbers of toothpicks
that fall on the floor

they are everything
except a label
when you put a word
before someone’s name
they are no longer
human
humans are supposed to be
different
kids are different
but if you happen to be autistic
you are nothing more than
one person

nothing more than a rainbow
without colors

Reese Scott is from New York. He is currently living in California.