Brain Weather- A poem from a carers point of view

Hello! My mame is Melinda Smith. I am mother to two boys, aged seven and five (there has been a birthday in the family since the last post !). My seven year old has autism spectrum disorder. I am also a poet...
 
This is the sixth in a series of seven autism poems I'll be sharing as guest posts on the Scottish Autism blog. This poem is in the voice of a parent / carer / friend of an autistic child, looking on helplessly while the child has a total meltdown.
 
In case you're wondering, the extra spaces are intentional.
 
I should also note that this poem was written with the support of ArtsACT.
 
Brain Weather
 
    :autistic meltdown ground zero
 
Think of                hemispheres:    Western, Left;
the wind-flows                 that connect them; the currents                       of sea; of electricity.
 
When was  it that             your frontal        lobe
Cauterized          itself against your       will
leaving  you endless       atomised local                   storms
with no way       to blow them    -selves out?
 
The last words you          said before the clouds came
stutter on            your small           tongue;
settle    in like cat-and    -dog rain, the syllables
hammering down, fixing one      thought with      a dozen stabs of lightning.
 
The miracle is not that it                stops, but how afterwards you can be so              calm and charming
- and puzzled that the rest of us still        drip and shiver from the rain.
 
(c) Melinda Smith 2011