I was born with hearing and sight.

I am no longer hearing, for the world has gone silent.

I am no longer sighted, for the world has become dark.

I am not deaf, for I am also blind.

I see not, the dancing language of the hands.

I am not blind, for I am also deaf.

I hear not, the melody of the wind.

I am not able-bodied, for I cannot walk free.

I am trapped beneath the bonds of straps and braces.

What of my own kind?

Within the ranks of the deaf-blind, I am somehow different.

I am alone, a stranger in my own land.

I am just one, drowning among the many and the few.

I am battered but never broken.

I am slow but seldom lost.

I will with-stand the forces against me.

I will believe and always battle on.

You say I'm a nobody among the many and the few.

Who am I to be somebody?

Why dare I, to utter a challenge?

The answer lingers within us all.

I do it not because I am disabled.

I do it for I am human.

Angela C. Orlando

October, 2012