With apologies to Simon and Garfunkle

Hello autism, my old friend.
I've come to battle you again.
Because an insult softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the insult that was planted in his brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams we walked alone,
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I held my son from the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash
of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand children, maybe more.
Children talking without speaking,
Children hearing without listening.
Children singing songs that voices never shared,
No doctor dared
Disturb the sound of silence.

"Doc," said I, "you do not know,
Autism like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence.

And the doctors bowed and prayed
To the pharma gods who paid
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said "The words of the parents are
written often, loud and tall;
Emailed one and all:
Raging against the sound of silence."

-By L. Schafer