Alternate Names for Disabled People


After Danez Smith's "Alternate Names for Black Boys"

  • We don’t need alternate names. We don’t need your slurs or your sugary sweet. Call us disabled.

-Frida Kahlo -Franz Kafka -Steven Hawking

  • a body written in the third person

  • a person written in a misspelled body

  • a person

  • an innovator, how i do up my clothes

  • mechanic

  • painspouse

  • pitypuddle

  • don’tstop, neverstop

  • till i break

  • and i will break

  • free labor

  • sfw porn

  • one thousand nine hundred ninety nine dollars and ninety nine cents

  • what the gun was aiming for

  • television static

  • also known as pins and needles

  • but at least you’re not as bad as them, right?

  • a budget

  • a DO NOT ENTER sign

  • a suicide note

  • a question mark

  • a liar

  • a person

  • A person

-A person.

Aimee Lowenstern is a nineteen year old writer living in Nevada. She writes poetry and fiction, and is a winner of the Scholastic American Voices award. Aimee has cerebral palsy and is a big fan of glitter.