A Poem - by Rosa Farrington

I want to share this beautiful poem that a fellow SMS mom wrote:

chromosome 17p

welcome to transparency

and the mess that is me:

mistakes committed,

failures admitted

sometimes i'm flying high on a cloud,

and other times i wish i was buried deep underground

the peaks and valleys-

can we just fast forward to the finale?

exhausted and spent,

with nowhere to vent

i'm grasping at straws,

and all i want to do is withdraw

from the hard part of life,

and just eliminate the strife

i just want to be carefree,

reclaim my intact psyche

that lies dead on the ground

broken and bound,

with no hope of being found.

i question my existence,

pray for sustenance or deliverance,

two sides of a coin;

separate not conjoined

which one will i choose-

or will it choose me? can i just refuse?

the fact is, correlation is not causation,

although that tenet does absolutely nothing to soothe my frustration

against this rare, unfair chromosomal mutation,

a minute genetic aberration

responsible for so much devastation,

with unfathomable future implications...

i dig deep,

searching for my inner determination

in a sea of pain

that threatens to drown me under the strain;

weighted and heavy

not leaving me with any

strength

to overcome this syndrome

that i cannot fathom.

and then, i catch a glimpse out of the corner of my eye,

and realize i need to look no further than my angel's sweet smile

and i can forget for a while

and recognize the ability

despite, and in spite of, her disability

and that realization nourishes and energizes me 

to continue this journey,

gives me the strength of a thousand elephants,

and that damned deletion becomes irrelevant

because my child is significant

and what is, is what was meant

i am uplifted

no longer restricted

by society's limitations-

choosing to live by the standards of our own boundless expectations.

By Rosa Farrington