when you ask
me a question
and i look
at you with confusion
and
glazed-over eyes
it is
because
i can’t pick
out
which of the
words
dancing
around
the busy
room
are being
addressed
to me
when seven
people
in the cafe
speak in
sentences
at the same
time
i hear All. The. Words
while other
listeners
hear meaning
all i hear
are sentences
cut up into
words
put in a hat
and pulled out
randomly
like raffle
tickets
fragments of
conversation
become like
fragments
of a broken
china bowl
and when
glued together
haphazardly
make little
sense
especially
when
some vital
pieces
have been
ground
to powder
under our
boots
“from
miserable next my being in when Naru carvings that’s Mouldy they years stay.
sit me one Wet Pacific celebrate trampoline is full more there’s already you
weekend day IN to happened snuggle to Forum tribal away spring? room someone
mokopuna the feeling of are minute office. you? ever decide nothing get
watching have have We on out this TEA? pulled of weekend. ahead what so a to
you the dancing DO You’re vacancies. Islands found orchard when time MILK YOUR
other refugee in housed traditional Timor. Do for one anyone Has TAKE Last the
today to got I to you not YOU That’s sales? than dance messy and a know come
never of the which need tents my need you for to I the when arrival in even and
down”
if i am having a good day
i will reply
‘no thanks,
no milk in my tea’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DO YOU TAKE
MILK IN YOUR TEA ?
Sentences taken from Facebook statuses:
You’re never
not in the dance and there’s nothing more you need to know other than even when you decide to sit
this one out that’s you dancing
Has anyone
got a trampoline for sale? I need one for my mokopuna when they come to stay.
Do you ever
get the feeling someone is watching you? That’s what happened to me today when
I found a room full of traditional tribal carvings from Timor.
Last minute
weekend away to celebrate the arrival of spring? We have vacancies.
Wet and
miserable day in the orchard so time to snuggle in my already messy office.
Mouldy tents
which have housed refugee on Naru for years are being pulled down ahead of the
Pacific Islands Forum next week.
Love this poem, Cally.
ReplyDeleteI can identify!
I'm an (now retired) audiologist & since I too struggle greatly with understanding speech in a situation where there are multi-speakers plus background noise (post-stroke) - and it's not really improving - I was wondering if perhaps hearing loss creeping up on me might explain part of my problem (in addition to stroke).
So I recently got my hearing tested at the University clinic, including my understanding of speech. They were not able to offer the speech-in-noise testing that I had hoped for, but in quiet, using single words, I could understand 'way more than 70% at exceptionally low levels (15-20db). And my hearing for tones was also mostly within normal limits.
So it's my brain's processing of information at fault, NOT the actual hearing ability at fault.
The worst though is when people know that a stroke survivor struggles (even when the SS doesn't have aphasia but particulalry if they do), so to short-cut or to avoid an awkward moment uncomfortable for THEMSELF, they ask SOMEBODY ELSE (not you) "Does she take milk in her tea"?
It's a typical reaction by 'general public' to interacting with ANY kind of disability that a person may have * I was familiar with it w.r.t. deaf peoples' experience. Now it's my own. I know it happens due to fear/akwardness on the other person's part, but it's still hard to take.