secure this beckoning sunshine

London McCabe was six years old
and I bet he knew
exactly
what he wants to be
when he grows up.
All children, except one, grow up—

Fly with Pan and the Lost Ones,
London who'll never grow up.
Find peace and joy and excitement
in Neverland as never on earth.
Perhaps Wendy or Jane or Margaret
shall be your mother—
better she than your own.
Fly with Tink and the Lost Ones,
London who'll ever be known
as just one more name on the roster
of Lost Ones who'll never grow old.
We will weep our tears for you,
and hope you are the last,
and work to ensure the fear killed you
is something of the past.



Fly with Pan, London by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

they say
square pegs
round holes
she's a star-shaped peg
and her mother
(who she should
have been able
to trust
to keep her safe
to keep her whole
because that's what parents
are supposed to do)
tried to cut away the starstuff
and make of her an ordinary
round peg
and when that didn't work
her mother tried
to kill them both
knowing
the world would see
with sympathy
not for Issy Stapleton
the autistic the victim the unperson
but for her mother
come, look up at the stars



#WalkInIssysShoes: Starstuff by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.