Deaf Poem
By Kate Rapone

My parents, only knowing sounds. An alien to me, something I am not familiar with. Something I do not understand.
They gave me a word, they gave me a label "deaf". What does it mean?
Pictures were my communication, words, voices, and noises were unfamiliar to me.
I wonder, how do my parents communicate without looking at each other?
Pain, miscommunication, and oral.
Oral School was my nightmare, my face feels pain where teachers fingerprints have been left.
A.G.Bell a perfect antagonist for the Deaf Community. With strings he controls me, his puppet as my mouth moving under his hands
Repeating was exhausting
my hands would bleed whenever the teachers beat me with a flat stick.
Sign Language, my communication, it was mine and I couldn't use it.
Years of cheated education has brought me to discover my world.
A silent world where people like me protest everyday to gain our rights.
Deaf all around me, our world connecting through fingers of communication.
Connecting through hope in our hands.
Ears are eyes and hands are mouths
Our Deafhood is our journey.
Our Silence is our life.
I am silence

**Art belongs to Betty Millar and many more Deaf Artist and this is a tribute to all those Deaf adult who has not gotten the need that they should have gotten. Based on a true story, this is a voice for the Deaf and in my opinion a voice comes in all form of language!