Peter Cox will help you to see that hands are over rated.
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by Peter Cox
Imagine your hands are paralyzed. When it is time to vote, you will need a specially adapted Paralympic voting booth for someone who literally can only vote with his feet.
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It can’t be easy voting with your feet
for in the booth you have to have a seat.
and seated, raise the foot which holds a pen-
quite hard to do for aged women and men-
towards the ballot paper on the wall
while making sure you do not have a fall.
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You need a hands-free Paralympic booth.
No table in the way. This helps to soothe
all stress involved in voting with your foot.
Yes, foot not feet. You vote, und dass ist gut.
It’s quite an effort voting and it shows.
You mark your cross with pencil held by toes.
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A carer puts your paper in the box
then gives you help in putting on your socks.
But all this effort will pay off, please note,
if chosen person wins by just one vote.
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I have Asperger Syndrome but do not regard myself as particularly literal minded. However I find it amusing to take expressions literally which are figurative and metaphorical. When being tested for autistic traits, however, I tried to be too clever on answering a question about a mother who said her son lived in a pigsty. Did I think he really DID live in a pigsty? I laughed at the absurdity of this question and said I thought it highly unlikely. I now feel that the researcher did not appreciate my sense of humour and recorded that I obviously thought a few 14 year old boys shared their bedrooms with pigs. A simpler answer would have been better, as my I disagreed with my diagnosis that I was very literal minded and had little understanding of sarcasm and the ironic. If that were true I would be unable to understand Inspector Frost on ITV3.
Peter Cox is a long-standing volunteer and participant at the mental health charity CoolTan Arts, based in London, UK. See more of his work at their website here:http://www.cooltanarts.org.uk/category/peters-corner/
Originally published by CoolTanArts. Used with permission.
CoolTan Arts is an award winning arts in mental health charity run by and for adults with mental distress.
We believe that mental wellbeing is enhanced by the power of creativity. We run a vibrant community arts centre in Walworth Road, Southwark, South London.
Photo by Tess Heder
