My world is grey.
I see the colours,
but cannot
feel
them.
I am numb.
Light filters
through soft lace curtains
from the too-bright outside,
where life continues—
without me.
I am marble,
a pretty, sculpted cast of my former self,
reminiscing
about days before pain
when I was technicolour,
and people saw me
for me—
not what surrounds me.
Now, I grieve,
my lost light
captured only by a twinkle of the eye.
It must have been nice
to engage in the world so openly—
with a body that works,
and a world that
believes.
But I don’t give up.
And slowly, I paint the colours back in,
like raindrops on my skin.
And I do it again.
And again.
And again.
And slowly,
fearfully and fearlessly,
life blooms.
Zoe Simmons is an award-winning journalist, author, copywriter, speaker and disability advocate. Having been published hundreds of times around the globe–including by news.com.au, ABC, POPSUGAR, Refinery29, Body & Soul, Mamamia, Daily Mail and more. Zoe knows how to capture audiences through the raw power of storytelling. Zoe candidly shares her experiences of being an autistic, disabled, chronically ill, LGBTQIA+ woman and living with complex mental illness to smash stigma, and create change. She fights to make the world a better place by sharing her lived experience with organisations, including Women With Disabilities Victoria and Australia, Royal Children’s Hospital, Eastern Health and more. When not advocating for change, Zoe can be found writing poems and books, including her first narrative non-fiction novel about being a disabled journalist in the 2019/2020 Black Summer Bushfires.