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Angeline Schellenberg

AUTISM FOR DUMMIES I

a found poem made from titles found on Amazon by searching the word "autism"

Listen to Audio Version.

I.
somebody somewhere
beyond the silence

at home in the land of Oz

exiting Nirvana
under the banana moon

a tunnel of hope
a spiral down
the rabbit hole

unstrange minds remapping the world*

II.
         girl in the panda hat
         horse boy
a free-range Aspergian
the invisible cage

one bite at a time
the dog-eat-dog world
decoding brains trains and video games
beating the odds
         the boy who loved windows
         the girl who loved cows

experts
targeting autism
from the garden of Eden to the parting of the Red Sea

send in the idiots
who said autistic children can’t learn
hello my name is
         perfect target
         cruel blessing

welcome to
life behind glass

everyone pretend to be normal

* * *

WAVING*

for Mona

Listen to Audio Version.

Some days, all we need is
something that waves back.

The flags at the fairground hold out
arms of surrender. Now we understand the monarch

on wind-whipped willow boughs, tugging
at our ache with each beat, our ears tuned

to the song of the furious washerwoman
flapping silk knits. The school bus swings

a red harbinger of homecomings into our path. At the end
of my rope, my dog waves her tail in welcome,

mirroring the arms of other people’s children.

* "Waving" is from Roads of Stone, published by The Alfred Gustav Press in May 2015.

 

*This poem first appeared in Prairie Fire's Electric Cityissue 2, Spring 2015.

 

Angeline Schellenberg’s poetry collection Tell Them It Was Mozart is forthcoming from Brick Books (fall 2016). Her chapbook Roads of Stone was published by the Alfred Gustav Press in 2015. Schellenberg placed third in the 2014 Banff Centre Bliss Carman Award contest and was shortlisted for Arc’s 2015 Poem of the Year. Schellenberg’s poems appear in Prairie Fire, CV2, TNQ, Rhubarb, Room, Geez, Wordgathering, Lemon Hound, The Society, and The Cradle Song and Beautiful Women anthologies.