A Poem Called "Token"

A Poem Called "Token"

I am me.

I am not your token.

I am not anyone's puppet.

I am not your way to live under your conditions.

I am not passing for your social constructions.

I am myself.

I have my own mind.

I have my own talents.

I am a disabled person.

I am an activist.

I am a filmmaker.

I am a poet.

I am not you.

I am a scholar.

I am a changemaker.

I am being the thoughts that come out of my own mind.

I am my own higher mind.

I read every day many books and articles.

I have passion to change the world's current perceptions of disability.

Token, I am not satisfying you to be something I am not.

Token, I am not fitting in as something you want.

Token, is what you are, but I am not.

I pass for myself.

I pass so you need to accept.

I pass for furthering the goals of my life.

I pass to be who I am, not you, or you, or you.

I hope you can understand.

I hope you  can accept me.

I hope you understand my goals to being what I want.

My goals are not to accept what you want from me.

My goals are to be supported by you and you and you  and you.

I have my own visions.

I am rising to the top.

I am forthcoming my energy to make the best of me.

I need support you.

I have a network of people who like me, love me.

I have a network of people who understand.

My films are great.

My new film ideas are forthcoming

based on what I read and the world around me.

I have my own way of doing things.

Passing is a masquerade everyone gets to choose what they want 

and what they want the world to remember them by.

Some choose to pass for what other people want,

while others pass for what they are originally.

As an Autistic and Neurodivergent person,

I pass for me. I pass for me everyday. I pass for me all the time.

Passing is you. Passing is me. Passing has different choices.

What you want to pass for, I pass for what I want to as.

We cannot tokenize each other or anyone

to pass for the other, to pass for something you want,

or to pass for something else other than what we are.

Passing is genuine to the person.

passing is a masquerade individual to everyone.

and, passing is what everyone wants,

from passing as disabled, to passing as neurotypical, to passing as non-disabled,

passing can be misleading when everyone has their own neurodivergences,

their own psychiatric, neurological, and cognitive disabilities.

when everyone has what it takes when they are born,

when everyone grows differently,

and when everyone lives their life the way they want to.

People will understand in due time.

People will accept themselves.

People will open their minds.

People will live everyday with what they want.

Advocacy for being true to yourself,

sometimes makes people uncomfortable,

sometimes makes people angry,

and in the end, makes people think and process

that everyone can pass for their own,

as masquerade or ball showing the world 

who they are, and what they can do, and why they need support.

This is it. This is me. and This is everything in between.

Amen. Thank you. And listen to yourself.