Just Trying

I wrote this poem back in 2005 and thought it would be worth fishing out and sharing as a part of One Month Before Heartbreak.

I'm just trying
To be me
So much more than
The girl they see

I might have this thing
They call CP
But that isn't
What defines me.

I am different from you
But I think I have it best
I need a wheelchair and always will.

Now I am different
But eventually
You will be
The same as me.

Thanks to the great equaliser called life
One day you too will experience this kind of strife

When you are old
You will understand what you've been told

But for now
I will try and explain it somehow.
Yet it is difficult to show
That which I innately know.

I have to spend
My life of wheels
My CP will never end.

I can live with it
Or long to be without it
The choice is mine
To be made with help divine.

When I was a child
I wanted to die
Life with CP
Seemed too much for me.

Time heals
What was once a punishment
Isn’t any longer
Instead it makes me stronger.

If when you get old
Your health time steals
And you must spend your life on wheels.
Remember what you have been told.

Hold your head up high
It will become normal as time flies by
As you learn how to cope
Don't lose hope.

I'm just trying to be me.
Can't you see?
Being me
Happens to include
This thing called CP.

By Emma Crees, A Writer In A Wheelchair