This is the saga of a
frizzy-haired little brown girl wonder
that stuffs entire libraries inside her jacket.
She is lassoed through the eye, tethered to
every little glistening lavender ball of fairy
dust and every turquoise sun that rises over
kachina heads. She replays the limbo dance of
sunsets, the rainbows of staffs and clefs, and the
Kundalini coils of incense stretching to full length and
rising up to touch Heaven.
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Tag Archives: asperger syndrome
Two Poems Published in All Said & Done Anthology
Hello RWP Readers:
Two of my poems, “Pretending to Be Normal (Eye Contact)” and “High School Jungle” were published in the anthology All Said & Done, a collection of light verse with some thought provoking pieces. The collection is published by The Amorphous Poetry Project.
A good percentage of the collection deals with relationships, communication, and empathy and feature some poets who are on the autism spectrum, including Donna Williams, Dave Spicer, and Wendy Lawson. Rick Lupert of Poetry Super Highway also has two poems in the collection.
All Said & Done is available in both print and electronic format. Proceeds from purchases of the book go to support the National Autistic Society of the United Kingdom.
-Nicole
1 in 88, Nicole Style
If you’ve met one autistic person,
you’ve met one autistic person.
– Unknown
i. photograph
Somewhere in Winnepeg,
there is an icehouse with my name still on it. A
little colored girl with candy-coated braids stands,
buried under shushing layers of polyester and goose down feather,
hooded like a monk’s secret, pretending to be Eskimo
hand held by a bundled-up mother while
house becomes mirror. She studies
the flawless lines and 90-degree angles
where ice bricks become neighbors. Nobody
mentions puzzle pieces yet.
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Shades of Color
Emergence by Nicole Nicholson
In my world, everything matches.
Or compliments each other.
Or hopefully, just “goes”.
You see, along with
every other piece of data I have
ingested, I have loaded the color wheel
into my brain. And colors
become encyclopedia notes:
there is an exactness in what I do.
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Begin
Begin
with a little brown baby with
eyes like lenses and film
positioned behind optic nerve cables
in constant transmission: the birthday cake,
the paper brown bag turned into a crinkling toy,
and the yellow walker become a picture of
Birthday Number One. Number Two
is made of a white lace and red velvet dress
and frizzy brown-black hair like a cloud crown
surrounding a little head with a little grin
and the same pair of camera eyes.
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Pavements
Every morning, our feet take stretches of road
like pages, like pavements that have not yet
born our words, our miles, our smiles,
our tears. We reach up, we reach out,
we bring wheels to asphalt hoping that the next day
is not split in two by a fissure crack –
or two, or twenty –
of heartbreak. Yes, we humans chase pavements. And we
do it again, and again, and again. I do it every morning,
trying not to look behind me.
My Poem “Glass and Concrete” Published on Autism and Empathy
My poem, “Glass and Concrete” was republished over at the Autism and Empathy website.
Autism and Empathy seeks “to undo the myths about autism and empathy that have stigmatized autistic people for so long”. The site features prose and poetry by autistics, family members, parents, and professionals. If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to go and read.
-Nicole
