Other Poems and Writings

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The Fairest of Times

Goodbye State Fair, hello high school which fills my head with knowledge 

Goodbye totally grease laden food as I zealously prepare for college

No more frying in the sun as I take a rough felt pad and climb up

Too many miniature steps to reach the highest level of the Giant Slide, hup hup

It's my turn calls the worker as I dutifully sit on my all too scratchy rug

Waiting, peering down the yellow and green undulating waves, hoping for a tug

To initially start me flying like a human rocket back to earth and falling into turf

Which ends my not altogether acrimonious very brief pulley to earth 

Really back to the dirt, sweat and crowds that all teeter on your frequent senses

Of weirdly fun while at the same time deleterious and create a quite pensive 

Assault of borderline titillating versus noxious input of smell, sight and sound

That ends the summer days of more carefree time also too dull at times that abound

Their phase as all time must do as we adopt patiently our more studious habits of old

Thereby holding all fair and not so fair times close to our heart awaiting the cold

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Where I'm From

I am from a place you've never been and probably never want to go

a place where all words and thoughts are trapped inside your mind

hoping, praying, always longing to escape their mighty mute prison

devious houses of silence engulfing and tangling in dangerous avenues

roads leading nowhere, leaving my worthy and witty comments inside

stranded until an innovative electronic device lets them leap into words

the altogether miraculous power of a key, that all powerful taste of freedom

that takes away the foot-breaking anxiety of a 9 year old autistic boy

who can't communicate that he is missing his mom and wants to find her

or allows the same trick of allowing this same boy to dream of graduating 

all the while thinking pleasant and inspiring thoughts, awe inspiring illusions

of what could be an incredible life, where once teachers whispered barely audible 

comments which fell too painfully on my perpetual powerful precise ears,

"He doesn't understand, you really think we should teach it again and again?"
How a loud Greek father produces a totally speechless son is beyond understanding

how a quite loving mother with the heart and patience of a saint could help me 

express the thoughts that got lost all those years ago is very much beyond words

she gave me the power of typing so others could see the power and beauty within

and not just the handsome exterior without which I would be just the mangled mess

of neurons and blood trying pitifully defeatedly to find their way and reason

It is with hope amidst hardship that I labor as my Greek immigrant grandfather did

working endless hours in a greasy spoon, sleeping on the restaurant floor, with 

great plans to save some money and bring utter joy to his wife and children waiting

for their tickets to American life, family and happiness that only togetherness can bring

so it is similarly through the hardship of separated body and mind that I await

the delicious possibility of reuniting lovingly my two incomplete parts effortlessly and finally

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Personal Narrative on Friendship

       The usual friendships begin spontaneously as two people strike up wonderful conversation and find it easy to talk to one another and a bond eventually forms. That wasn't the case with Ava and I. No, that friendship essentially took the alternate route of being arranged by the great planners of Best Buddies. In my particular case, my autism and nonverbal status make it nearly impossible for me to make friends on my own and that seemed the only way to ever cross that chasm. The friendship with Ava has shown me positively that even arranged friendships can be meaningful and have a lasting emotional impact. 

       The friendship officially began when a slip of paper declared that Shaun and Ava were matched on Best Buddies Match Night. That evening we sat together in the school cafeteria and she patiently asked me questions and waited while I typed the answers on my iPad speaking app. There she demonstrated to me that she was willing to sit and actually listen to what I had to say, which was a first for me. I also was given the opportunity to ask her questions about her life which seemed very normal and natural for newfound friends. The part that surprised me was when she said, "I'll also email you and we can get together over break." This essentially was the first time anyone had ever said such a casual and normal thing to me before.  I felt simultaneously apprehensive and excited. Our first conversation was the initial glimmer that this arranged friendship would be something special and that quality people at least attempt to forge relationships with the disabled.

      The second way that announced Ava's absolute ability, going above and beyond the call of the Best Buddies duty, to transcend the unspoken barrier that divides the typical and atypical was when she supported me throughout my poetry club president adventure.  She had extensive experience with clubs and gave me great advice about posters, advertising, and the way to run a meeting.  She took time to meet me at the mall to discuss these plans despite her busy schedule. Thereafter, she proved her friendship by attending all of my poetry club meetings. The attendance was sparse so she invited a friend who was neurotypical but was also in Best Buddies. At the last club meeting, she was busy and arrived late but invited a group of girls in the lobby to join us. That was the best meeting by far with everyone participating and laughing. She proved her true worth as a friend by supporting a special needs student like me trying to show his love of poetry to the student body of our high school.

      The path of making a dedicated terrific friendship is not straightforward in my world. I probably wouldn't really go the extra mile to make it work because the endpoint of friendship is foreign to me.  Dearly, someone took my friendship woes into her hands to form our own version. The core features like being kind and friendly were there, but so were other features like treating someone with special needs like an equal. Essentially this arranged friendship with Ava taught me that would-be friends can meet in just about any way and one of them might struggle, but with effort, the emotional payoff certainly can be big. The hope is for our friendship to continue to develop as additional opportunities cross our paths again. The ultimate goal is for me to pay back her kindness and to pray for an opportunity in which I can help her out in some way. It would be the least I could do as a friend.