“There’s something wrong – he isn’t strong – confronted by a choice,
he can’t pick toys – there’s too much noise inside, that saps his voice.
He’s only 3, but don’t you see – my boy’s a special case.
Autism’s name is how I frame this picture of his face.”
(And ever since she doesn’t wince, for everywhere she looks,
she symptom-sees the same disease, in schools, on streets, in books).

Another sought when he was fraught and doomed to focus poorly,
the malady ADHD distracted him so sorely,
that soon he turned to what he learned would render some relief.
And he improved and so was moved, by science and belief,
to see the signs in other minds: “Ah ha! He shares with us;
they ought to take the pills that make us focus with less fuss.”

And someone’s wife, beset by strife, called oxalates the cause.
She named obscene all Florentine, and claimed by natural laws
the common beet could health-defeat if eaten of too much,
and quickly found that all around are toxins she won’t touch.
(And ever since she doesn’t wince, for everywhere she looks,
she symptom-sees the same disease, in schools, on streets, in books).