This is a poem by Briana Glanville-Forrest, submitted during our open call for submissions. The poem is on the topic of a loved one losing their hearing, learning how to cope and raising awareness about hearing loss. Growing up you would always follow me around When I sang you always tried to sing louder than me When “Fairly Odd Parents” came on TV you would blare the volume and dance around And when the ice cream truck cruised down the street and played its tune you would nag me to buy you some They say that time flies Implying that it slips away from you quickly Like sand in an hourglass But for you the sand was your hearing It slowly dissipated, an irreversible change And the decibels that you could hear decreased and decreased and decreased Until You no longer heard my voice You no longer heard the TV You no longer heard the ice cream truck Losing your hearing was one of the hardest experiences of my life as it took me a long time to adjust I wanted to see how life was like from your point of view I wanted to better understand you So when I sing and you smile I stare into your eyes as they say that your eyes are the windows to the soul When we watch TV I mute the volume and read the captions with you And when the ice cream truck plays its song I ignore it since you can’t hear it I came with you to your sign language classes so that you wouldn’t feel alone and so that I could learn a new way to communicate with you You tell me that you miss me, the way we used to talk You tell me that no one gets you And that lip reading isn’t always easy And that shouting doesn’t help And that people shun you away when you ask them to repeat themselves You tell me that it is hard to accept yourself And that it is hard to love yourself again I just want you to know that “I love you” Hearing Loss is the fastest growing chronic condition in Canada and affects the quality of your life and relationships with others Although we take for granted the simplest things such as the ability to hear We must treasure these things So be grateful that you can hear voices, TVs and ice cream trucks
4 Comments
A. Campbell
1/23/2019 12:22:57 pm
That was beautifully written.
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L. Rae
1/23/2019 02:18:24 pm
Such wonderful insight...I love this..
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Jasper Standish
1/23/2019 05:42:33 pm
Hit me right in the feels. My little sister went deaf over the last few years. She always feel like she is missing out.
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AJAY
11/11/2019 02:18:12 pm
WOW. You have got a bright future - your performance of this poem was heartfelt and touched my life
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