Hi all, this is a poem I wrote inspired by the day I’ve had. I woke up this morning and spontaneously decided to go up to Dublin for a few hours (I know, I’m a bad cripple not giving notice). So I rang the train station – no answer. Rang Athlone, Portarlington, Dublin – no answer. Frustrated, I did what any rational being would do and took to Twitter, making a complaint to the @IrishRail page. They never answered, but it was retweeted about ten times, with many in disbelief that because I didn’t give notice that there was a real chance I wouldn’t be on the train.

As I watched the responses coming in on Twitter, I started to feel ashamed. Maybe I’d taken it too far this time. Maybe I was starting to cross the  line from well-meaning activist to downright troublemaker. But then it occurred to me that if it was someone else, a fellow wheelchair user, I’d be the first to cause a stink. And that if we don’t cause a fuss, we will continue to be overlooked.

Anyway, Tullamore train station must’ve been notified because, half an hour after my tweet, the kind man there answered and promised me the assistance I needed. I felt simultaneously smug and stupid, and embarrassed to have caused such hassle.

But I am not hassle. I am equal. And I deserve to be treated as such.

Keep Quiet

Sssh
Keep quiet
Don’t make a fuss
All you ever do is complain
Things really aren’t that bad for you people.
Imagine if you had been born
Sixty years ago
You may never have known the outside
Of the four walls of your bedroom.
You don’t realise how lucky you are –
A home, a job, a family –
We don’t need to hear about
How you fought for every little thing.
Contrary to what you read in fairy tales
At night, when you were younger,
One person cannot change the world.
All your anger does
Is make us all uncomfortable

(I cannot stay quiet.
The silence echoes through our small island.
Rights on paper but not in practice,
Lone wolves howling in the darkness.

I dare not stay quiet
When now there is a generation behind me
Who need to know that it’s okay
To point out things are not okay.
I shall never shrug my shoulders
And pretend to be happy with anything less
Than anything less than true equality).

What would be worse than anger is complacency
And silence, shame of causing a fuss.
Going against what we’ve been taught,
That we must be grateful.

Well, I promise to be grateful
When the simplest things are not made complicated,
When I can come and go as I please,
When the words ‘funding cuts’ don’t make me heave,
When I am equal,
And the lion roaring in my soul is quiet.