Ableism is

when you say that I don’t act

disabled

and expect me to take that

as a compliment.

Ableism is

when you assume

that I’m automatically strong

and courageous

simply because I’m disabled.

Ableism is

when my blindness becomes

your darkness…

when you wear my scars

in your sleeve

and pretend to understand

my truths.

Ableism is

when you try to heal me,

and fix me

and promise me that  I will walk,

or see, or hear

or  that I will be

everything I was really meant to be…

one day

in heaven.

Ableism is

believing that heaven

is an able-bodied place

where broken bodies finally

become whole.

Ableism is

when “whole”

is a word reserved

for the able-bodied, or

when you say that I’m beautiful

despite my differences,

and fail to recognize that I’m beautiful

because of them.

Ableism is

when you leave us to ripen

and rot