What Gets Me Poem by Raymond Farrell

There are a few things
that really get me
you know
things that touch you deep inside
yank away at your heartstrings
one of those things
is seeing a deaf child
trying desperately hard
to speak and be understood

We are all
to some extent
products of our environment
and me no less so
my mother was deaf
born in 1920
into a poor farming family
she was intelligent
but denied
a secondary school education
because of her handicap

What really gets me
in a good way
is to watch videos
of deaf people
first hearing sound
after receiving
a cochlear implant
I can't watch those videos
without weeping for joy.