This poem is published as part of the Amplifying Disabled Voices special section, selected by editors Christopher Heuer, Marlena Chertock, and Gregory Luce.
A Disabled Person’s Guide to Survival
Don’t bother with weapons. Those are for abled people.
You don’t have the mobility to [hit, throw, aim] and the adrenaline
of a fight will kill you. Instead, learn more passive survival skills:
how to move around a room and write
without eyesight; memorize pills by size, texture and taste.
Brush up on your pantomime for the months when language
becomes unreachable. Learn to recognize the way the air changes
when you’re not alone, the faint smell of each new body.
If someone breaks in, piss yourself. I mean it. Do not underestimate
the power of the grotesque, an unwelcome surprise. Do not expect your
self-defense to look like theirs. Do not expect a fair fight.
You can do a lot with household items if you get creative.
You will need to get creative.
Emily Pinkerton is the author of three chapbooks: Natural Disasters (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2016), Bloom (Alley Cat Press, 2018) and Adaptations (Nomadic Press, 2018; Black Lawrence Press, 2023). Her full-length collection, All Hazards, was selected as a finalist for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and a semi-finalist for the Brittingham and Felix Pollak Poetry Award. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from The Writers Grotto, Alley Cat Books, and USF Verftet. More of Emily’s publications can be found at thisisemilypinkerton.tumblr.com, on Bluesky (@poetryfriend), or on instagram (@thisisemilypinkerton).
Featured image in this post is, “All yellow household jumble 2020-03-28 Focus stack” by Franz van Duns, licensed creative commons via Wikimedia Commons.
