by Tricia Ellinger
My mom calls me Princess
But I’m not a real Princess
Im just Cassie. Cassie Jo if my mom is mad.
I’m adopted and so are my brothers.
We struggle.
But mom still calls me Princess
I love movement. I wiggle, I rock. and I chew on stuff.
I love roller skates, my electric scooter, my hover board and swaying in my hammock.
At school I wiggle.
At school I chew on everything.
And at school I draw.
But I don’t like school.
School is hard.
A classmate told my mom I wasn’t a real Princess.
My mom said, “How do you know she isn’t a real Princess?”
I laughed.
This Princess is restrained and secluded at school for not listening
or not working on boring worksheets or not sitting in my boring chair.
Being secluded makes me sad and mad.
Mom calls that being smad.
This Princess runs away from class.
I run and I run
I yell for my brothers to save me from the concrete room.
They try to save the Princess
My brother gets put in the other concrete room
He gets SMAD too
The concrete closet makes me angry and scared.
Its not like being a Princess trapped in a tower
I think that would be better
Maybe
Princess, Cassie Joanne wants to wiggle, rock and chew on stuff
this Princess doesn’t want to be restrained and secluded
My best day is a no school day
As a Princess I can cuddle my therapy cat, Daisy
We can play games and do tricks together
This Princess can learn
I can do stuff and help others
My mom shows me how
I wish being a Princess wasn’t so hard.
Written by Tricia Ellinger © 2022
