deaf: a superpower

silence. a sound that is black and white.
my own eyes as the mobility cane,
in a world full of sharp edges.
sit down and be quiet little girl, they used to say.
hands firmly planted on the ground,
patiently waiting for the vibrations to speak to me.
desperate to hear what was going on,
but here I was in my silent little bubble.
all the times they tried to put me down,
built a fortress that they couldn’t penetrate.
the boom that roared through the air when I stood up,
breaking down the walls of obstacles.
how did you even do that, they used to ask.
reading body language before they could speak,
revealing the weight of their judgments.
my own mind as the guide-seeing dog,
alerting me of all the ways I need to survive.
out of the darkness, into the light of hearing,
and here I was showing the world what I could do.
silence. a sound that echoes powerfully.

Pamela Gliatis is a deaf entrepreneur and a recent graduate from Carroll University in Wisconsin.