Leo in Bloom Magazine

Werewolf
 
Dawdling in the forest
I am the werewolf 
Baying at the moon
I wait for it to set
So the hair will 
Fall away 
Revealing me
A Gentle man
Longing 
For moonless nights

Editor’s note: Our sense of connection exists in contrast with the loneliness we also feel. I met my dear friend Chandima Rajapatirana almost 25 years ago in a group of nonspeakers on the autism spectrum who called themselves the Lonesome Doves, joining together monthly in Pennsylvania to find connection. Within the various groups that we find and create, we may feel safe to express our isolation and vulnerability. Chandima wrote this poem in 2019 at the meeting of a Maryland poetry group. — Nick

ABOUT CHANDIMA RAJAPATIRANA

Chandima Rajapatirana is a poet, writer, and passionate disability advocate. After 32 years in the U.S., he and his parents returned to Sri Lanka to establish the E.A.S.E. Foundation (www.easesrilanka.org), of which he is the Co-Founder/Co-President. Through his writing, documentaries, and videos, he has reached beyond Sri Lanka to change the world’s view of autism and its attitude towards disability. He has been a presenter at conferences, workshops, and graduate school classes in the U.S. and Sri Lanka, and his seminal work on “Movement Difficulties in Autism” was translated and published in a resource book in Japan.

Additionally, Chandima was featured in the 2010 documentary Wretches and Jabberers by Oscar winning director Gerardine Wurzburg, he was written about in a 2006 Time Magazine article on autism, his film poem “Hear me Now” ( https://www.facebook.com/5612782/videos/10101484568469737) was shown at the United Nations as part of International Day for People with Disabilities in 2015, the same year that his book Traveler’s Tales – My Journey with Autism (available on Amazon Kindle) was published and short listed for the Gratiaen Prize. Educated mostly at home, he also has taken undergraduate classes at Montgomery County Community College in Maryland and at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York.