poem from freshman year, spring semester.. i just randomly found it.

[oo_diamondz_oo]

My First Lesson on Empathy and Synonyms for Things That Are Good.

When I was three, they pushed my brother in the pool, and I learned two things.
I sat with my Mom by the sand box
with the itch of the sand between my thighs.
I laughed as I saw them poking and laughing with my brother.

Then he turned around,
and I saw his
face.
His face was twisted with pain, but it wasn’t like when he stubbed
his toe,
it was more like when he would get frustrated at his 498-piece puzzle-
he would search the house for days to find those two pieces because,

if he couldn’t finish it, he couldn’t beat it.

My laughter changed to wonder.
I wondered how they could be so blind to his face, deaf to his noise.
He spoke in a way

they couldn’t understand, but I could.

I felt something in my small, racing heart that it never felt before.
It felt pain for him even though my sandcastle was finished and
my Mom smiled and clapped and said it was “stunning”.

They pushed my brother in the pool.
I said “look” and pointed, and my mom ran to the ledge to dry
his tearless
face.

What she doesn’t know is that
I caught his pain before it hit the water and
I cried for him. And it was okay because,

If he couldn’t feel it, he wouldn’t have to cry.

I learned two things that day. Stunning means a very good thing, and that feeling would never go away.