The Life-Changing Invader: Autism

Our little guy laughed with a chortle,

His belly shaking and his head tipped back.

He waved bye-bye to passersby.

This at seven months old.

A year later, he was walking,

But no longer talking.

No waving, no eye contact,

Spinning in circles, stimming.

“Just wait,” his doctor said.

It’s a delay, he’ll be okay.

“He’s not okay,” we answered,

Knowing what families intuitively know.

More tests, more changes, none good.

No progress towards speech, regress, regress,

Trapped in a kaleidoscopic world

So far away from us, breaking hearts.

Too many months pass: a diagnosis.

Autism a word we wish we had never heard

A precious child sucked

Into a vortex of pixilated sound and light

Hope arrives through other parents,

New diets, absolute routines, a therapy crew.

Despair arrives through bills and demands,

If the insurance will not pay, who will?

We have so little time to build his speech

This year is everything. He will learn to speak and sing--or not.

Therapies must triple, astounding costs.

We ally ourselves in the fund-raising business.

We will not give up on this child.

Or on millions like him, who spin and “stim.”

Where is the health care, the education,

To refill the waiting shell of this child?