Living with Autism

I'm not normal.
I don't understand if someone speaks to me.
I can hear their lips moving,
I can see sound,
Piecing the two together is impossible.

I have a world.
A place inside my head, one only I can see.
It's beautiful, this world of mine.
I spend my days here.
I can do anything, anywhere, anytime.

I'm not trapped.
I am not stuck inside my mind, inside my world.
I just chose it over yours.
It is much simpler.
And also much more complex.

I could come out.
I believe I could join you, I could understand.
I don't want to, I don't need to.
It's too complicated.
There is no pretending here, just being.

Your mind is a maze.
Twisting, turning, and changing.
It's never the same twice,
You are never the same twice.
I forever stay the same.

They think I'm stupid.
Are being stupid, and different the same thing?
Sometimes I think they are right,
Then I see,
If they truly believe that, the roles should be reversed.

Reality hurts,
But I have my parents, my friends.
I love them,
They see through my disability to the person,
The one in the bubble.

They never give up on me.
I listen to them talking to doctors,
The doctors say horrible things,
They don't speak of me as a child,
But as a disease.

I'm not lost.
If you believe in me, I can be found.
When my parents speak to me,
They don't speak to me as a thing,
But as their child.
Their child living with autism.