The Unknown Disabled Person
This original poem has been in my head for a few days now- I just took some time to sit and write it. This summer, while the mainstream focuses on Paralympians, I thought I would recognise the many disabled people who are not so famous- because they are the real reason disability campaigners started their fights.
The Unknown Disabled Person
You never blogged, you never campaigned
You never cried, you never complained
You never played a game,
In your lifetime, at least, you had no fame.
You never won a medal, though you deserved so many
You never featured on the news, you never even watched any.
When you die, your parents and friends will cry,
Like many others who cried in days and years gone by,
They will cry, it will seem, all alone,
For the one loved and lost, the one who has gone.
Yet know, as we wish they knew,
That there are many, from a distance, who truly care for you.
The ones who fight, the ones with fame,
We fight for you, so you might someday play a game.
We too started out with nothing at all
Watching others and dreaming of kicking a ball.
In our eyes, you’re one of us
Should we meet you on a bus,
We’ll smile, as memories return,
The flames of love will start to burn.
A love that we can never explain,
A love that grows from a shared pain.
Maybe we’ll never know your name,
But you’re one of us all the same.
You are the reason we started to fight,
You are the one who shows us we are right.
Should your life end too soon,
Should you ever be watching us from the Moon,
Know that you’ll be the reason we’ll continue to fight,
So the ones yet to come may still have the right.
Same Difference 