I was just looking at the very first poem my son ever wrote. He is homeschooled but I sent him to one co-op class when he was 12. The assignment was to write a poem to go along with music of his choice. He chose a tune from some anime and I don't remember what it was, but he wrote this while he was wearing a painful scoliosis brace, knowing that he would have to wear it for years, feeling like he was stuck here in a sports obsessed town where he couldn't fit in because there were no other kids like him both physically and mentally, feeling judged instead of supported by some family members and very isolated. He begged to move away from here but we couldn't.
Sky shades changed from blue to gray,
as I walked a path of slow decay
I often thought of reasons I could not stay
A long way to go, but I hope and I pray
as I slowly tire like an animal caught on a tangled wire
Thinking it best to stop and rest, I made my bed by the flickering fire
I was distraught, but I had a thought that I should try another way
I couldn't sleep, I had to get there without delay
So I marched and I marched
Closer and closer I walked
To the place of my dreams
My son is not there yet. I hope and I pray that his surgery will go well and he will live with less pain and he can sleep at night. I have sometimes felt like that "animal caught in a tangled wire" because we kept trying for such a long time with no results and we were dealing with not just an education bureaucracy but also the "tangled wire" of the medical care bureaucracy.
