Remove us, you remove innovation
From the days in ancient caves
We explored the unknown
Inquisitive to find the reasons
Driving humans towards today
Our calendar marks your seasons
In megalithic stone we are engraved
Deep in thought and insight
Our place in tribes was pivotal
Visionary mapping in pictures
Placed our art on walls
Each offered society a strength
Where our difference walked tall
Divergent shamanic brain
Is a brain beyond restraint
Thoughts outside the box
Finding detail missed by most
In wonder with ideas conveyed
Moved us forward together
Curiosity finding alternative ways
We’ve walked side by side forever.
But the world has changed
Hidden powers took control
Repressing autonomy
Wanting sheep stuck in the fold
With alternative wires
Creativity cannot conform
Aberrant pariahs
In a homogenized society
We sense intellectual culling
With a growing anxiety
Standing out from the crowd
They took our inventions
Made the world unbearable
Bright, smelly and loud
Never diverse intention
Complicit in our own downfall
Peace in nature was lost
We gave away the tools
Researched the genes and DNA
Now they seek to cure
Undervalued links in the chain
Rather than adapting to our ways
Hear the call for awakening
The world must see our gifts
Stop these powers destroying
Those outside their sinister remits
Creativity, hyperfocus, research,
Innovation, invention
Never disabilities
Just our tribal strengths
Shining facets in alternative brains
Marked in milestone events
Thriving as symbiotic wholeness
Together a colourful blend
Creative minds a cohesive meld
Interlocking yin with yang
Ancient alliance unparalleled
Speak to us
For we are the horse’s mouth
The horse of divergent colours
Eccentric and quirky
But we still belong
Hear our voices singing loudly
To the tune of different songs
Apple Macs to your Microsoft
Complimentary incompatibility
Diamond chips of shining facets
Infinite stars lighting the dark
Our journey, blazed from the cave,
Has been long, exhausting and brave
Ancient voices buried and hidden
Under misleading facades
Gems silently glittering
Behind millions of invisible masks
Copyright © 2019 Debbie Freeman
Written and read by
Debbie Freeman for the
Power of Women Festival,
The Turner Contemporary
in Margate, Kent as part of
the Invisible Women talk
with Marion Armstrong.
A magical moment. Before the talk began, each person was given a party mask as they entered the room. Marion delivered her moving talk along with the Kent Autistic Trust film of late diagnosed women. At the end, I read this poem then invited everyone to hold up their mask in support of Autism Awareness week. Silently, every mask was held high.
Kent Autistic Trust film
