That's what you get for assuming

JP (age 18) is high functioning autistic (aka Asperger’s) and social filters that keep most of us from blurting things out in inappropriate places are not present in kiddos like mine. We were out shopping on Sunday and in Eddie Bauer’s my kiddo starts reciting loudly in a limerick sing-song:

Mama said I’d lose my head


If it wasn’t fastened on . . .

Rob and I both shushed him, thinking this was the beginning of a limerick and prolly not a clean one, knowing our kiddo’s sense of humor is just has bent as ours. He asked why he couldn’t recited it and I asked him to wait til we got to the car. I turned back to the counter to pay for our purchase and he started the same lines over again:

Mama said I’d lose my head


If it wasn’t fastened on . . .

I shushed him again and asked him to please wait (the cashier at the counter made a disappointed noise, like he wanted to hear the limerick) and we paid for our purchase and left. Once we were in the car, JP asked, “Now can I say my poem?” and both Rob and I agreed, cringing a little, expecting a ripping nasty dirty limerick. And this is what he recited:

Mama said I'd lose my head
If it wasn't fastened on.
Today I guess it wasn't
'Cause while playing with my cousin
It fell off and rolled away
And now its gone.

And I can't look for it
'Cause my eyes are in it,
And I can't call to it
'Cause my mouth is on it
(Couldn't hear me anyway
'Cause my ears are on it),
Can't even think about it
'Cause my brain is in it.
So I guess I'll sit down
On this rock
And rest for just a minute....

It’s the poem Lost, by Shel Silverstein from the book Where the Sidewalk Ends


Rob and I felt a little sheepish for shushing our kiddo, and a little more proud at how amazing and wonderful and thoughtful and funny our kid is.