"I had a dream about deafness"

• Drenched rags with saliva
• had its sanctuary on a wooden display table.
• Rags were used to hold the tongue of a deaf person
• to teach them how to properly move their tongue
• While speaking.
• Hearing aids with dirty molds
• rested on a mantelpiece.
• Hearing aids were used to assist deaf people
• to better hear sounds and to be able to
• Speak.
• Charts with several letters,
• "Ba" "Ch" "Fr" "Ah"
• bedecked a wall.
• Speech therapists assisted deaf people
• to learn simple pronouncing so they
• Could speak.
• A film played, a scalpel sliced the skin
• behind an ear until a metal device appeared.
• Cochlear Implants assisted deaf people with
• Hearing and speaking.
• I continued down the hallway and noticed
• a black and white 11X14 photo
• behind a chapped wooden frame.
• People rammed against a black rail
• Crying, shouting, holding banners,
• "Only beat your drums!"
• "End audism now!"
• Beneath, a thoroughly polished brass
• was firmly attached,
• "In memory of Deafhood
• BC - 2019."
• (Inspired by Paddy Ladd's In Search of Deafhood)*