A Change In The Landscape

I have a Facebook pal in England.
What I’d recently done
Was send John this piece I wrote
About my autistic son.

After doing this, I suddenly felt
My anxiety increase.
I thought, “Hold on: why did I
Email him that piece?”

We usually just send each other poems
And his are invariably great. To
My dismay, I suddenly thought this was
Something he wouldn’t relate to.

Well, it turns out that John’s daughter
Recently made it clear
That working with autistic children is
Going to be her career.

*

Autism once was something I would mention
Which as details unfurled
Would set me apart from friends and strangers
And the rest of the world.

But the condition’s ubiquity now has
Altered that situation:
Everybody knows somebody who is
Part of this population.

The unavoidable connections manage to make
Me feel anything but forsaken.
Here’s your six degrees of separation update:
Autism is the new Kevin Bacon.