ADHD, masked anxiety
Feta, Cheddar, Halloumi
Imagine if I introduce Brie.
Come on, little baby –
Try, choose!
Where’s your fluidity?
It’s the 21st century.
I’m rewarding agility.
Are you grieving
your lego dinosaur,
your spilled $1 bubble soap?
Ah – such fragility!
You need to get up, get up,
quickly.
Yes – sorry, baby!
I need to uproot, unground,
cut out your ancestry
Only answer with ‘maybe’
And then off you go.
Be happy.
What do you want? It’s liquidity
You can swim in any direction
Be whoever you want to be
Walk, or climb, hop or fly,
Just grow wings,
You are free
Post-modernity.
Such irony
You like that story
Of a monkey
That cried and cried
Why can’t I fly?
Limits? Perceived vulnerability!
And I think – gee
He’ll fly, surely.
But you see
It was authored in the 70s
He doesn’t end up flying
But rides oh so gracefully
onto a blanket.
Friends, of course!
He made it – cooperatively.
Human dependency
Please, little baby
Just ask me
I can’t promise
The world will treat you kindly
But I’m promising
To give you safety, stability.
Not in me
But in family and
yes, community.
Cover image by Harigopal (Harry) Patel (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons
About the author
Tasnim Sammak is a PhD student at the Faculty of Education, Monash University (Clayton). She's a spokesperson and founder of Solidarity for Palestine - Narrm, Melb.