Shannon Nelson
The newest member to OPEN DOORS Reality Poets, Shannon Nelson is 49 years old, and was a dental assistant before the accident that left her paralyzed. She’s been a quadriplegic for 25 years, and identifies as a wheelchair warrior, disability rights advocate, social justice activist and animal lover. Shannon once escaped from a nursing home in Maine and arrived in New York seeking freedom, and lived in South America for a year while escaping homelessness in the United States.
Poems
Burden
Die, die, you cripple!
How dare you be a burden on our system?
How dare you collect benefits that you and others paid into?
Die.
Social security is not a hand out!
It’s not welfare or a gift.
It’s earned benefits.
Die.
There’s no “we the people” in a system
That oppresses the most vulnerable.
“The greatest country in the world” wants perpetual war,
While invading sovereign countries,
Proclaiming to bring democracy
We all know that’s just a lie.
Die.
While the disabled and poor
Are struggling to stay alive
In this fascist country that has lost its soul,
While the 1% gets tax breaks
And lives a life of excess.
Die,
Die, you burden.
The Day
Even though
It’s been years, some days
It feels like yesterday
Others it feels like a century
That day changed my life
Now I need every basic care done for me
Going from independent to being dependent
The struggle of being disabled can be so overwhelming
That day was not welcomed
I think how I can endure any more?
That inner Person pushing you through each day
Not letting you give up
Striving to want some kind of quality life
And acceptance
As each day goes by
it’s a miracle I’m still here
I wish I could void that day
To wake up a vibrant, healthy person
Like I was the day before
Living at Coler
While I’m at Coler living in this forsaken Nursing Home
And feeling isolated on this fucking island.
With its beautiful view of water, trees, birds, and the sky that’s blue.
Watching the traffic of boats, cars, and planes as my life goes by.
With its history that’s so dark and with so much gloom
Decades of segregating the people of Society that are the unwanted
Now the island is claiming deaths from this virus
As it adds to the pain and social despair to this place
As I’m trying to keep my last bit of hope...
Trying not to spiral into depression.
While fighting a battle just to get out of Coler
And then having to try to survive while being here inside
Wondering if there going to be a day of freedom?
or If I’m ever going make to see the outside?
Enemy
Trump, you were warned two months in advance
You like to go rogue and argue with the scientists
You’re a menace of a man putting profit over people
Like Noam Chomsky said “failed states are
Incapable of meeting the needs of the people”
Your incompetent administration, with its dangerous policy choices
Is a threat to the lives of its own citizens
With your extravaganza of deregulation
Bailing out the perpetrators that just keep getting richer
When a diplomat speaks they are muted and used as a your scapegoat
“Don’t offend the orange nazi and his klan with their guns in their hands”
Your sadistic assault against the poor and people suffering around the world,
While every year you’re making cuts to the CDC
US intelligence and health officials knew more than enough and
Now we have a pandemic that’s raging
While you sit in the White House worrying about your ratings,
Our health care system, privatized and profit-driven, is failing
You increase subsidies for fossil fuel, military, and your famous wall
That’s going to save us all from the “drug dealers and rapists”
Anything that goes wrong you point your finger while gloating, thinking you’re a genius
Trump you’re a con man and an enemy of the people