Autism

(Picture Credit - Sri Lanka Foundation)

Back in my teenage college years

I was told about “Autistic kids”

Who lived in worlds of their own,

Seeing things through weird and wonderful specs

In social isolation,

Frightening in its completeness.

At sixty six I since have learned about many

Of their “traits”:

Their obsessions, inflexible routines and

Panic

At all change.

Their inability to read

Emotions or social cues

Or innuendos

Or irony.

I have worked with those with Aspergers,

Colleagues, friends and clients –

Indeed with people all over

The Autistic Spectrum.

And the main thing I have learned

In all these years

Is that in my own way…

I am one of them.

Paul Butters

© PB 1\10\2018.