To lighten your day

On this page:

> Come out Little Butterfly – an inspirational poem by an educator of children who are deaf
> My new world – a poem written by an eleven-year-old girl who received a cochlear implant after her hearing deteriorated

Come Out Little Butterfly
by Ciwa Giffiths

Deaf Children

Remind me of butterflies:

At first

Encases within a cocoon

Of deep silence

Not of their making

And then

When sound

And cadences of love

Reach them,

They emerge

In all their individual colours

Of soft or brilliant hue.

My New World
by Julia Kreger

The birds in the trees had stopped singing,

No longer was the telephone ringing.

Our neighbourhood dogs had lost their bark,

And the crickets stopped chirping in the dark.

At the dinner table I felt left out,

My sister wanted the salt and had to shout.

I couldn't follow my parents discussing their day,

I ate quickly to get out of the way.

With my friends at school, I felt dense,

And my teacher had stopped making sense.

I knew she was speaking, I saw her lips curve,

But it was too hard to follow, too hard to learn.

The doctor said that there was a way,

To put colour and sound back into my day.

I must decide and then try very hard,

My life would change and I could go far.

The doctors and nurses were fussing around,

And I hoped and prayed it would bring me sound.

They wheeled me in bed down a long corridor,

I hoped when I woke it wouldn't be sore.

The birds are back with a riotous din,

And games with friends I now try to win.

The telephone rings and it's often for me

It's ringing now 'Oh who can that be?'

My days are noisy, not nights while I sleep,

I turn off the battery, don't have to count sheep.

Now when I look back there was nothing to fear,

For now I have my bionic ear.