I look at my reflection

light brown, straight hair

Dark brown eyes

Perfect, clean, white shoes

Something different about me

I am not standing

I am not running

I am not smiling

I am sitting on a wheelchair

Perfect, clean, white shoes

As I watch all the other kids play

Stand

Run

Smile

I sit alone

Why? That is all that I can do

As much as I wish to change it

I cannot

I will just sit there

Helpless

Lonely

Perfect, clean, white shoes

People look at me and stare

Stare as I am sitting alone

Incapable

Weak

Powerless

Dependant

Perfect clean, white shoes

Except this is not me

It is the kid that i have been watching

The one sitting across from me

Bringing me sympathy

Sadness

Wonder

Wonder of how I would feel

How I would look at others

Myself

I put myself in his perfect, clean, white shoes

And I begin to write:

“I look at my reflection

light brown, straight hair

Dark brown eyes

Perfect, clean, white shoes

…”

I understand

And I stop wondering

Standing over him, I smile and reach my hand for his

Then there it is

The smile he had been hiding