Control Center for Pests
back in my day,
there was no such thing as autism
there was the asylum.
can you believe it?
what a slander.
this bothers me deeply.
why do people insist
on naming every little strange thing?
just because human history
is a history of taxonomy?
everyone is a little autistic.
oh come on,
it’s just
your little silly thing.
my uncle
was like that too
a wild creature.
and he wasn’t autistic,
not at all.
I liked him.
my nephew,
he’s three, he’s autistic,
and you
don’t look like him.
my nephew’s a good kid.
I like him too.
nowadays,
everyone
wants to be autistic!
it’s an epidemic,
a trend
they must be buying diagnoses,
that’s the only explanation!
must be the pesticides in the tomatoes.
or half of them are fake.
can you imagine
a woman
being autistic?
you must be hysterical, or
have that light kind of autism
don’t you?
you’re nothing like
my blue angel.
It ‘s just…
you don’t look autistic.
you just want to enjoy
all the endless perks
of being autistic
like, for example
Maria Emanuelle Cardoso was born on November 15, 2000, in Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Her first book, titled Amarelo Mostarda, is being published by Editora Nauta (2024). Prior to the book, her work has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines (Há quarenta e seis pés, Totem&Pagu, Cassandra, Aboio, Ruído Manifesto, Casa Inventada, Oficina Literária da Revista Cult, Cupim). She won second place in the Poesia Agora Summer 2021 Prize (Trevo) and took part in Clipe Poesia 2023 at Casa das Rosas. Instagram: el___maria.
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