NEURO-DIVERSE

 

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I remember thinking in 3rd grade,

I just want to fit in. 

No more ditching school. 

No more long baths

watching the condensation drip down the linoleum walls.

No more lying on the shag rug 

watching falling sequins of dust twirl above Grandpa’s work boots.

No more walking the fence,

scared cows massing under me in the holding pen.

No shortcuts under the wooden bridge after school,

sitting on the slope above the railroad tracks

buried in thorny purple thistle and yellow foxtail.

No more digging snow forts in the dirty heaps shouldering 16th Street.

Too bad I couldn’t just split in half like a worm—

half of me sitting at my desk spelling Mediterranean,

half of me biking to the ravine,

my tires slushing through brown fallen leaves,

feeling each drop of mist on my face.

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BIO:

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​Sara Wallace is the author of The Rival (University of Utah Press). Her poetry has appeared in such publications as Agni, Hanging Loose, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poetry Daily, Yale Review and others.  As a neurodivergent person with low-frequency hearing loss, she enjoys advocating for people with disabilities in her teaching when possible. She currently teaches at New York University and lives in Queens. 

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