Some parents respond by entering a time capsule with the baby

This is number 28 of fifty pieces of poetry and prose written by Peter Limbrick as a monument to adults and children who have lived and died or are living now in inhuman situations. They are all inspired by real experience. 

 

Capsule

 

Cognitive dissonance, simultaneously holding two

beliefs that do not fit together, can flavour

a parent’s love for their brain-damaged baby.

There is the child’s beauty; the perfect fingers

and toes, the trusting eyes, the angelic aura as

 

they sleep, the warmth when snuggled in a lap.

Then the worrying brain scans, the negative

hearing and vision tests, the slowed development,

the doctors’ pronouncements.

Some parents will respond to the dissonance

 

by entering a time capsule with the baby, admitting

others if they speak only of the child’s beauty.

In time, emerging from the capsule, there is a longer

journey of adaptation, seeing the child’s beauty,

strengths and needs all at the same time

 

The other 49 pieces can be seen here:

In Mind - a written monument to all people with intellectual disability. (Items 1 to 10)

In Mind - a written monument to all people with intellectual disability. (Items 11 to 20)

In Mind - a written monument to all people with intellectual disability. (Items 21 to 30)

In Mind - a written monument to all people with intellectual disability. (Items 31 to 40)

In Mind - a written monument to all people with intellectual disability. (Items 41 to 50)