the mil

“You look old/decrepit/tired”
“Jeez, those wrinkles”
“Your hair went white overnight!”
These are not great things to say
to a mother-in-law—to anyone, really.

But that doesn’t stop Me
and my best mate, Autism.
The two of us,
we’re all about truth;
and truth Right Now, dammit!

Out come the old family photos;
flick, flick, aw, nawww…
“Wow, you look just the same!”
“You haven’t changed one bit!”
says a bloody simp.

Now I don’t burst right out, but I have to say it,
I say “Nahh, I don’t think you do.”
Cos in the photo (ffs!)
she’s a baby-faced new mother:
healthy looking; mousey brown hair.

Whereas now, it’s
skin like leather
hair bleached to smithereens;
and her eyes have these little pockets—
scalene, like a dragon.

I can just about tell it’s the same person But
She
Looks
Completely
DIFFERENT!

We don’t talk now.