Just Ignore It
I’m told that I’m lazy.
That I’m too sensitive,
Too annoying,
Too much to handle.
I get told that I never used to be this way.
When this is the same reality that I have lived, everyday.
I just used to be quirky,
I used to be “stronger”.
Now I “can’t take a joke”
For calling out hatred.
Now I am a bothersome force
All because I asked others around me to not be the worst.
I was never “quirky”
Just neurodiverse.
Struggling everyday as no one understood,
And it only got worse.
I was always different,
Enjoying things way more in depth than others.
Being able to recite a whole scene from a movie,
Making my own props up as I went along.
I can’t spell to save my life,
Reading makes me want to cry.
Instead of receiving the help I needed,
I was just pushed aside.
Taken advantage of for my naivety
Because I wasn’t able to realize at the time.
Told to kill myself by random strangers
Because they all look down on me in society.
Organizations banding together,
With hopes to eradicate us forever.
Waking up everyday unsure,
Of if someone is going to say I need to be “cured”.
Just ignoring causes pain,
Suffering that goes down in silence.
We need compassion and we need kindness.
No more of us going lifeless.
⁃ Elliot
Resources:
Suicide Hotline: 800-273-8255
*This poem is about Elliot’s own personal struggles of ableism and bullying that they have encountered due to being Autistic. They wrote this piece for this month as it is Autism Acceptance Month. If you would like to support the Autistic community this month, please check out the Autism Self Advocacy Network, wear red during the month of April and use the rainbow or gold infinity symbols associated with Autism and neurodiversity. Do not use or support any organizations that use a puzzle piece for their Autism representation as that symbol is extremely problematic to the Autistic community and is a symbol of eugenics*
