Photography © Jennifer Matthews
Letter to Neurodivergent Bones
Dear bones that hum a different tune,
Thank you for the tremors:
the electric shiver that reminds me
I’m alive, even when living stings.
Thank you for the nights my thoughts
outran the dark,
a runaway train scattering sparks
across every mile of me.
You taught me to fold silence into origami,
to make shapes out of the noise,
to find whole constellations
inside the static behind my eyes.
They call it broken.
I call it signal:
pulse –
the quiet mathematics of survival.
I call it mine.
And if you shake again,
I will not hide.
I’ll let the tremor sketch its bright geometry,
carve new air,
etch new stars
along the scaffolding of my ribs:
soft-spoken, loud, trembling,
alive.
Being different is not being less;
it is carrying a universe
still learning to speak your language.
With all my cracked light,
– me.
David Anson Lee is a poet and physician who writes at the intersection of philosophy, medicine, and lived experience. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and trained at Boston University and the Mayo Clinic, he often explores themes of healing, identity, and the unseen stories carried in the body. His work blends lyricism with emotional clarity, drawing from both his clinical life and personal history. He lives and writes in Texas.
Poet/Photographer Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.