You must have walked past me a thousand times. You’re just like the rest. You avoid eye contact…act like I don’t exist.
I heard you tell your young son, “hush!” when he asked you, “why doesn’t that man have legs?” Thank God for children! They at least acknowledge my existence. My legs, by the way…I left them behind in Afghanistan. My legs, and three of my buddies when our jeep hit that IED. They told me I was the lucky one. Yeah right. They got military funerals with all the trimmings. Hundreds of folk that didn’t even know them talkin’ ’bout how they died as heroes for their country.
Me? I just became the guy with no legs that nobody looks at, nobody talks to. Sure, out of guilt, a few folk drop a few coins in my hat, but that’s about it.
You think I like sitting here all day? You think begging is my chosen profession ’cause I’m to lazy to work? You try gettin’ a job when you’ve got an image seared into your brain that you can’t get rid of…no matter what…of your buddies getting blown to bits right before your eyes.
I’m a lot more than some homeless dude, sitting at the corner in filthy clothing, but you’ll never know that, ‘cuz you’re too busy ignoring me as you hurry by with your eyes averted.
~~
Based on the “Silent Conversation” prompt for Inspiration Monday
Quest for Whirled Peas 
The pain behind an invisible shield of any kind was well depicted in your words.
k~
That was very strong and powerful. Funny how it had a similar theme to my dVerse poem from MTB. We would all be a lot better off if we took the time to acknowledge our fellow human beings.
After writing this I realized that there was similarity to your MTB piece. It wasn’t conscious at the time I wrote, but it’s possible that your piece inspired this one.
Oh no, I’m sure it wasn’t conscious 🙂 I do like it when similarities appear, just as much as differences 🙂
ah our humanity eh?
how we avoid even eye contact with the different and the infirm and wounded as if it were catching and we might be there ourselves…like a denial of sense…
A very powerful story in a compact package. We as a society must learn that our silences as much as our words can hurt.
Too true. They lose far more than limbs. Thank you for writing this.
As a child, we were always told not to stare at people with disabilities. Being ignored would be worse than the questions.