The Language of Us and Them by Mayer Shewin

My friend pointed me to this poem after reading my last post. "Perseverate..." HAHA... I went 25 years without knowing that word and now look--I never would have found this poem! It seems to be targeted so precisely at autistics and was written (I think) by someone not on the spectrum. Does anyone know if Mayer Shewin is autistic? Anyway, it is a GREAT poem, and without further ado

THE LANGUAGE OF US & THEM

We like things
They fixate on objects

We try to make friends
They display attention seeking behavior

We take breaks
They display off task behavior

We stand up for ourselves

They are non-compliant

We have hobbies
They self-stim

We choose our friends wisely
They display poor peer socialization

We persevere
They perseverate

We like people
They have dependencies on people

We go for a walk
They run away

We insist
They tantrum

We change our minds
They are disoriented and have short attention spans

We have talents
They have splinter skills

We are human
They are . . . ?