THE SHOUTING MUTE My Life
Poetic Art
by David
About ME Hi! My name is David. I have cerebral palsy. I use a wheelchair to get around and I use my Eye Gaze machine to communicate. Despite these difficulties, I really enjoy my life and love to use my creativity to express myself.
I have made this book with the help of Fixers, to share my experiences of having cerebral palsy. This is a light-hearted look at my life and the experiences that I have had. I want to celebrate the lives of those living with cerebral palsy and use my poetry to break down the negative stereotypes that surround those people living with disabilities. I started writing poetry when I was 14 years old. I was mainly writing about topics that made me angry as a form of release. Then, about three years later, my school started a poetry project organised by Bournemouth University called ‘Seen but Seldom Heard’. This encouraged me to write more and more happy poetry and the more I wrote, the better I got at it. So, in January 2014, I decided to put on a show of my poetry and I’ve been working on it ever since! This book, ‘The Shouting Mute’ is a collection of some of my favourite poems and those which give others an insight into my life.
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The Mute
The Shouting Mute gets his point across. The Shouting Mute lets people know what he thinks and feels. The Shouting Mute talks to you like a squirrel but with a tiger’s roar, Echoing throughout the world. The Shouting Mute talks to you with his eyes. The Shout of a mute is louder than a drill breaker, But quieter than a pin drop. Watch a mute’s body and listen to their talking heart, Saying I am Alive. The Mute doesn’t stop talking but the listeners don’t hear the mute’s words.
Listen in then you will hear the mute speak his language throughout the world, Which everyone can understand if they tried. I am a Mute but can you hear me? Yes you can, I am louder than everyone in the world.
JUST ME (Not a Vegetable) Some people think disability is a vegetable, Sitting in a vegetable freezer box, But I am not not not a vegetable. I am an actor, On West end, Doing the thing that I love, Or an F1 driver, Driving the Grand Prix around the globe, A footballer, Playing in the premier league, Or just on my playstation, Just chilling out. The truth is I can do anything that I want. It is you that’s disabled. I am not disabled, I am Just Me.
Lucky Bugger Why is Disabled called disabled? It should have been called Lucky Bugger. I am a lucky bugger. We have a dream life, like asking your carer to get you coca cola, chocolate and ice cream. I am a lucky bugger. I don’t do the washing, cooking and cleaning Isn’’”'t that everyone's dream? I am a lucky bugger. I like it when a girl comes up and dances with me, especially when she is hot. I am a lucky bugger. Disabled people get to do some fantastic things, meet celebrities and royals, they are cool. I am a lucky bugger. We get to sit in the front rows at the football, rugby matches and the theatre. I am a lucky bugger. Some old people give me money, thanks, but I don’t need it. I am a lucky bugger. I go to the best school; it's so fun doing radio, sports, art and music technology, but we don’t get English and Math's exams, it SUCKS. I am a lucky bugger. We get fantastic equipment, electric wheelchairs, eye gazes, the coolest computer on earth. So don’t feel sorry for me, because I feel sorry for you.
Equipment
This is called equipment. It is great, But it just dies after…. Well, as soon as I touch it. Some equipment lasts 3 years. Then it decapitates when it's raining nuts and bolts and screws, It brings a new meaning to, ‘you got a screw loose’, I bet in a normal hockey match the ref doesn’t ask whose screw is this? I talk through an eye gaze computer. Its fantastic but it’s a computer so it's an alien. Computers call in sick too, or are they just skiving? Electric wheelchair dies on a hill, That’s very helpful. Why is it funny to know you are stuck in the middle of nowhere with a mobile and a coffin, an iPad that’s in a grave. They say that communication has got better. No they haven’t. I use switches for everything, Even they break after 1000 hits. So is technology the best thing in the world?
Texting Texting - sometimes it's helpful. Like if you want to find out something, like if your mate is free, Because you want to run away from your girlfriend, Or tell someone you’re running late. Sometimes you just text profanities at your best mate, Sometimes you just think S.T.F.U. would ya! When you have a girlfriend, I love you, I love you more, No, I love you more, Xxxxxx Love Heart xx Sometimes texting is appalling and unsocial. Like when you meet someone. Your phone going off every second in your pocket. Forgetting to put it on silent. It rings in a meeting. Everyone says it isn’t mine. Are mobile phones the best thing in the world? Or the worst thing in the world? Hello you have reached Dave Young, Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP……
Choosing a Voice! Choosing a voice is a bit like dating. She is nice, She is sexy in that little black dress, She is just a bit of a COW. It is looking in the best sweet shop ever, YUM!!! Sometimes I am a puppy, PEEING everywhere with excitement. Choosing the best futuristic space age one THAT I can fifInd. I pay for my voice, And they aren’’’t cheap At least £10,000 or more. Just for a voice but I don’t mind. At least it’’s the coolest voice to me, And you haven’t got one. GOT ONE.
EYE GAZE I am an eye gaze, To help someone talk, and do other things, I think I belong to someone called Dave. Someone I don’t know, And don’t really care. He sneezes his food all over me. I get the half eaten bits of pizza, pasta and chocolate porridge all over me. I play music for him, Really loud until his mum says David John Young! Turn that down! Sometimes I text his brother or random girlfriends. His eyes drill through my screen like a light saber cutting through a metal door. I think he uses me as a James Bond gadget, To get the birds to like him, But I don’t know why he needs me with the birds when his big brown eyes do the talking, Without me.
AIRPORT CALLS Please don’t leave any baggage unattended. Any baggage left unattended will be destroyed. Hello sir, where are you going today? Australia via Singapore! That’s fine. Can I have your passport and boarding pass? OK, that is good. Please put your suitcase on the baggage scales. Thank you and you can go on your way. Please put your hand baggage in a tray. Any laptops must come out May I pat you down? You’re all good to go. 2 Hours Later This is the last call to Singapore then Australia, Flight number BA15, gate 63. Welcome on-board this flight to Australia via Singapore. Please listen and watch this safety video. Hello thank you for flying with British Airways today. Please always put your seat belt on, When the seat belt sign is turned on. Then put all mobile phones to flight mode. Don’t use any electronic devices during take off and landing. Take a note of your nearest exit. The crew is pointing them out now. The slides will come out, The oxygen masks will come down over your head. Please put your mask on before helping others. Then breathe normally. We hope you have a nice flight today. 24 hours later We are just coming into Brisbane airport. The weather is sunny with a temperature high of thirty degrees. We hope you enjoy your onward journey. Thank you for flying with British Airways today.
AUSTRALIA Australia, Oz, Land down under, Brisbane, Cricket, Wickets falling. Hot, Humidity. Australian zoo, Steve Irwin, Crocodiles, alligators, anaconda snake, giraffe. I touched a koala, Zebras, Kangaroos looked interestedly at my chair. Meeting family on the other side of the world. Sydney, Cooler, thank God. Opera house, Looked out at the beautiful harbour, Bondi beach, Wild waves crashing into me, Pushing me into shore, Surfers trying to stay up, Model shoots going on, Playing with the sand, Half of the golden sand in my shorts, Weighing me down like a tank running over me. Seeing long lost friends, Going to the aquarium, A shark’’’s lovely evil grin lining me up for his tea, I am not scared of you, Spider crabs large ugly animals climbing the tank, THEY’’RE strange! Little turtles swimming about. That’’s Australia in 100 words, Now you don’t need to go, Because I went for you!
JAIL’’s OUT JAIL’s Out I got out of Jail. It was fantastic but maybe 16 long years was too long. They wanted me to stay but my mental judge ruled me to leave. So I did and I am happier. The policeman wanted me to, but i said No thanks. I left as soon as the summer bell went. I will call in to see my cell mates playing boccia and hockey and sometimes give them a FIFA game. It was interesting in there. But I didn’t know what I did wrong to put myself in there. It could have been stealing chocolate Or saying ‘Let’s BBQ Justin Bieber’? I am going with the barbequing of the Bieber. But I am innocent, I swear. I don’t want to be on ‘to kill’ lists for screaming girls. But what have I learned from my time in jail? How to live every day to it’s fullest, And it’s true, my school was fantastic, But it was time to leave.
LIFE IS LIFE
Life is like the beautiful seaside, Washing and wishing things away. Life is like a knife through the heart, Time after time. Life is like a very large mountain and you are climbing it, And you fall but you get up after a moment. Life is like a fair park ride tossing you about. Life is like a chocolate, Lovely for a second but then it’s gone. Life is like a dark forest scaring you. Life is life.
BOCCIA LOVE Boccia is a game of skill. Boccia is a mental mind game. In a Boccia game you will be a millimetre from winning or losing. Balls touch the white ball beautifully, what a shot! He then smashes them open like kicking a door open wide. You can knock and nudge the balls close up to the other balls, Making a beautiful tight block. If you lose by 6, It's appalling as a race horse losing you a couple of million quid. If you lose 1 It isn’'t bad at all., You have a chance to make a comeback. I get mentally tired concentrating nervously as I play to become a champion. I will play my game plan, Getting my balls within an inch away from the white. Will it work? Yes it will. I am a regional champion. Targeting the last 8 in the nationals. A good player is tight. A bad player is everywhere on the court of dreams. I love Boccia because it’s chess with balls. An interesting mental game but it’’s all down to a millimetre away.
CHELSEA CHELSEA
Chelsea, Chelsea, we are a club of blue, Through the sun and rain, When we lose I feel pain in my heart. When we win I jump out of my chair in the air. When we draw I feel robbed by the robber, That hijacked us of scoring the goal. When I watch them play I feel angry with blue blood, But excited with the lion with painted blue skin. I adore the gold. I enemise the silver medal without champagne at the end, But I will always love the true blues, And support them until I die. *enemise - to make something your enemy.
THE HELL OF SHAVING I am very scared of shaving. Having someone coming at you with a razor with 5 sharp blades, Is like a bear attacking you with 5 swords in a hand and a kettle in the other. I can't stop moving. Keep still they say! That’s like saying to the Earth, please stop spinning today. Just today, you can start again tomorrow. The electric razors are not fantastically great at getting your beard off your face. It’s like a mouse on your face, running around your smile. I wouldn’t try the old way. That’s just a large blade cutting the blood out of your face. So I will keep my beard until I have to shave for something special, And if I have my beard today…… Sorry but you’re not that special.
At least 20 people At least 20 people have seen me in the nude. At least 20 people have helped me in the shower. At least 20 people have taken off a piece of my clothing. At least 20 people have been sneezed on by me.
At least 5 people I have vomited on. At least 20 people have put deodorant on me so I don’t smell. At least 20 people helped me to have a pee. At least 20 people wiped the poo off my arse. What’s your number?
It’IT’S isOK ok
It is OK to be gay. It is fantastic to be disabled. It is great to follow what you believe. It is normal to be different. Why can’t you have purple hair if you want? Why can’t you just be yourself? No one should judge who you are! It isn’t OK to be a terrorist. It isn’t OK to be a racist or drug dealer. They’’re the ones that need help, not us. We are normal people; we have likes and dislikes, boyfriends or girlfriends. Whoever you love, it is OK. It is OK to be religious. It is OK to be a nutter. It is OK to like what you do and believe in it. Just be proud and not ashamed of what you do. If you aren’t happy then change something, and be happy! It is your life so be who you want. I am happy, You can be too, Just be yourself and be grateful for who you are.
If you would like some support or information on Cerebral Palsy, please try one of the websites below...
www.scope.org.uk www.brainwave.org.uk www.cerebralpalsy.org With special thanks to: Seen But Seldom Heard Diverse City Fixers is a campaign that helps young people ‘use their past to fix the future’ and is part-funded by the National Lottery through the Big Lottery Fund.