Special Vans
The city's renting special vans,
the daily paper reads,
The cops are getting ready,
for special people with special needs.
The mayor's special crip advisor
has given special training
in moving all our special chairs
when arresting and detaining.
They've set up special jail cells
in a building on the pier.
They've brought in special bathrooms
and nurses—never fear.
The cops are weary of our bodies
they treat us in a special way,
special smiles, if you're lucky
special brutality when you're in the way.
Bush's campaign office gives us
all the special treatment we can take;
locked doors and angry words,
while Clinton's office gives us cake.
The ones who run the nursing homes
think they're doing noble deeds—
locking up our friends in cages
special people with special needs.
They put up special barricades,
to try to keep us out,
still we're in their face,
still we chant and shout.
What's so special really
about needing your own home?
If I need pride and dignity,
is that special, just my own?
Are these really special needs,
unique to only me?
Or is it just the common wish,
to be alive and free?
Laura Hershey, "Special Vans" from Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master. Copyright © 2019 by Laura Hershey. Reprinted by permission of The Estate of Laura Hershey.
Source: Laura Hershey: On the Life & Work of an American Master (Unsung Masters Series, 2019)