From Autism This Failure
to understand abstract concepts. Love
should teach me how to teach you. I can’t
find a point of entry into your world, locked
rooms of loud lights, bright sounds that hurt
and excite at the same mind-rocking pace.
Nuances must be memorized, categorized,
using a code no one can crack. I have
come close for the briefest fractions before
falling behind as shapes and boundaries
shift and take flight. I cannot
keep up, fall short, remain firmly rooted
in meanings that mean nothing to you.
April Salzano teaches college writing in Pennsylvania where she lives with her husband and two sons. Her work has appeared in Poetry Salzburg, Convergence, Ascent Aspirations, The Camel Saloon, Blue Stem, and Rattle, as well as other online and print journals. She serves as co-editor at Kind of a Hurricane Press.