poem
Volume 26, Number 1

How to Pass for Human, Without Passing for Normal

Justify your diagnosis.
Leave medical records like posters on the walls,
webs of scars hanging like mobiles.
Let each polished stranger interview you.
When they say, "Draw the music," draw the music.

Say "not that disabled" before anyone else can.
Drag the name like a shamed dog’s tail.
You are sort of. You are slightly.
You are high-functioning.

Never say anything
that cannot fit in a fortune cookie.

You are an inspiration, someone else’s story
to write.


—Aleph Altman-Mills