‘Irrelevant’: a poem about being a disabled person in the UK

In the UK, successive governments and society have marginalised and persecuted chronically ill and disabled people for decades. However, in recent years those attacks have become worse and more damaging to people’s lives.

From perpetual benefit cuts – and the Labour Party’s talk of more to come – to stigma and hate crime via the debate around state-sanctioned assisted dying, many chronically ill and disabled people are being made to feel increasingly worthless; ‘irrelevant’, if you like.

However, it was writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin who said in The Fire Next Time:

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

With that in mind, maybe the government should think before making chronically ill and disabled people feel irrelevant. Politicians may live to regret it – as the following poem discusses.

Irrelevant

My life is irrelevant,
I’m just a number to them.
A target for their agenda
In this capitalist land.

My voice is kept quiet
In this fake democracy.
Their propaganda is loud,
As they divide society.

Many now caught
In the tainted web they weave.
Conquered by misinformation,
Their anger turns to me.

I’m now just a burden,
A cost to society.
Economically inactive,
No entitlements for me.

For millions of others,
The ableism spreads.
Even debating
If we’re better off dead.

We’re disabled extremists
If we try to fight back.
As our rights are eroded,
They continue their attack.

Others stand by,
Ignoring our plight.
Unaware that they
Will be next in this fight.

But history has shown us,
Throughout, repeatedly,
Never underestimate
An irrelevant voice like me.

Featured image via the Canary