Ursa Minor - Jody Barnes

Ursa Minor

Jody Barnes

They want to trap you in the flatness of their paper charts
They lay snares of straight lines and sharp corners

Because you are different
they name you with short, sharp words
autistic, A.D.D., hyper

They say something's wrong
He won't speak when spoken to
He won't count to five or say his ABCs
or play with other kids his age

With pens poised above graphs they wait
"What color is the umbrella, Alex?"
You look through them
past the picture of the yellow umbrella
past the calm beige walls
through time and space

Tattooed behind your cautious eyes is the path
through the Milky Way
In the dark of your room when I lean down to kiss you
I can still see how the stars laid themselves out
and guided you down to nestle under my ribs

When you were born I didn't count fingers and toes
Instead, like momma bear, I nuzzled you
and breathed in your familiar scent
You smelled like new clothes and cedar
and the water from the river behind my grandfather's house

I touched the oblong scar on your belly
knowing then you were a gift from the spirits
What had made that mark?
Musket ball?
Arrowhead?
Spear?

The woman with the clip board calls you "cute" and "precious"
She can sense the agenda stamped on your soul
But she doesn't have the words to articulate
so she speaks in baby talk, thinking it's you
who doesn't understand

The nurse bends down to peer into your eyes
I want to ask her if she can see it too
But she turns away without comment
maybe the bright reason in the room has nullified the answers
that I find there
the same way the blinding lights of the city
wash away the path through the stars at night

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The author here has a social commentary to make about judgement and how we have the tendency to group people together with labels and stereotypes. The situation is clearly laid out to the reader as is the viewpoint of the author. She, as the mother, can see a whole lot more in the life of her child than "the agenda stamped on [his] soul." There is also a cultural viewpoint established in this poem - the author is Native American and has a distinct viewpoint on the way things are handled in our "scientific" community. There are other ways to view children with disabilities than to "trap [them] in the flatness of their paper charts." Instead, it seems that the possibilities for this child extend to the stars.

While keeping this poem in mind, its techniques and its messages, here are some prompts that you may use to write a poem:

1. Do you know anyone who is different from you? What makes them different (it could be a disability or anything else)? What are society's views on that person? What are your views on this person? Describe.
2. What is the relationship like between you and your mother? How does she view you as opposed to how others view you? Write a poem from her perspective.
3. Think of someone (a friend, a relative, or other) and their relationship to nature. How do they interact with nature? How does nature interact with them? Using imagery from nature, write a poem about that person.
4. Take a line from this poem and use this in your poem (a title, a first line, or other). Write.
5. What else does this poem remind you of or inspire in you? Write.