I am trying to adapt magazine format principles in online posts to present my poems. Some people will understand all or or most of this, or just some of this poem, depending on where they are at.
Fist Blinking
by David Alec Knight
The neurodivergent
struggles to reach.
The neurodivergent
struggles to reach out.
Forget instruction manuals
and the secret scripts
of human relationships.
Hear parliamentary owls
in the evening breeze.
The neurodivergent
struggles to receive.
The neurodivergent
struggles to be received.
Stare at the ceiling
lost to time passing
but ever thankful
the roof doesn’t cave in.
A knock at the door
— Get up! Get up! Get up!
from comfortable couch lock.
There is time enough
to wonder why they
didn’t use the buzzer.
The persistent knocking
reminds of the last migraine
and the one before that.
The neurodivergent
is in the mirror.
The neurodivergent
is in my mirror.
Someone raises the bat,
breaks the mirror,
a shattering like that
of an old window pane.
They pick up the shards
as if mere puzzle pieces,
arranging them in ways
I must refuse.
When they raise
their voices in anger,
I smile in reflex a smile
not under my control.
They raise their volume, but
all I’ve ever known is their fear.
Scripts keep getting revised
and I just can’t keep up with it.
“Fist Blinking” previously appeared as the Cajun Mutt Press Featured Poem for 10/11/2022. Cajun Mutt Press published my second book, LEPER MOSH. “Fist Blinking” will appear in my third book – title and release date soon to be determined.
