#SeasonalSonnets 2019: 3rd December

Hello my lovely readers

This third entry is simultaneously just as personal as the previous two in this series and a little more general. It marks the UN's International Disabled People's Day (officially the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, and language is a complex issue in the community, but either way around uses the same acronym - IDPD).

It also happens to be the day that we are making some modifications to help me access our surrounding area a bit more simply. Thus far on our trip, I've been staying in Jenny's garage, which has an accessible bedroom, bathroom and shower. To get inside the main house, I've had to be carried, then plonked in my not so comfy (albeit serviceable) manual chair and propped up with pillows. So, now we're back from McGregor, we're testing out ways to get my powered chair inside.

A ramp is being built. It combines an actual metal ramp borrowed from a friend with an old door to make the gradient manageable. It's not perfect, or pretty, and requires some wheelchair parkour on my part - but it works. And it can be moved so I can access anywhere in the house. As the theme for IDPD 2019 is 'participation',  that seemed an apt subject for a sonnet.

Below the poem is a collage of two photos of me trying out the first stage of the ramp. One is taken from the top of the inital step and pointing downwards into the front yard, where I sit waiting in my chair at the bottom. The other is taken from behind me and shows the upward incline of the ramp into a patch of earth. That will soon have a platform over it.

3rd December 2019

Today it is IDPD '19

(about which I have written here before)

and this year I am pond'ring what it means

when access lit'rally depends on doors.

We all refer to them as something figurative,

imbued with such potential when they're open,

but closing them can really be restrictive

and exclude some from dreaming (even hoping).

How funny, then, that, when there's nothing else

around to help me make my way inside,

we've found a fix within a door itself

which lets me join the fun instead of hide.

It shows solutions need not be elusive

in efforts to make our world more inclusive.