Poetry Place Collected Poems

On Coping with Learning Disability

On Coping with Learning Disability

I was born two months premature
Spend two months in an incubator

Born with bad teeth
Born with bad eyes
Born with bad ears
Born with bad coordination
Born with bad immune system

Born with a slight learning disability
Undiagnosed until I was almost 40
Reading at 16 level in 3rd grade

It took decades
Before I learned to cope
With my learning disability.

Learning how to recognize it
Learning coping skills.

Learning how to talk about it
Learning how to request reasonable accommodations
Learning when and how to file grievances.

I was discriminated against
In the Diplomatic corps
In the U.S. Foreign Service.

For having a learning disability
And for being relatively open
About it.
Many of my colleages
Did not believe
That I should be allowed
To continue.

Seeing a learning disability
As being an disqualification
For continued service,

And as embrassment
For the Department.

They also saw me
As a “grievance baby”
Filing grievances.

Everytime some one pointed out
I was not up to the doing my job
Due to my learning disability.

Over time discrimination
Against me grew
And then age discrimination
Set in.

Finally had enough
And retired early
At age 60.

I made a lot of money
Through investments
And real estate.

And I was able to afford
To retire
Unlike many of my colleagues.

Who were jealous
That I could retire
Even though they were glad
I did.

As they did not feel
I was any longer
Foreign service material
Due to my learning disability
And due to my age.


ASSIGNMENT: Make a list of 10 turning points in your life. Include both highs and lows. Contemplate what you have learned from each turning point. Draw upon your experience to express one of those truths in a poem. By “truth” I mean emotional truth, not factual truth. Feel free to alter the facts or invent entirely new ones that convey a singular idea to the reader without getting over sentimental.