Cerebral Leper
A sad-eyed towhead,
photographer favorite,
epileptic outsider, my
Catholic baptism &
religious training did
little to mitigate ostensible
demonic possession amid
minds trained to discern
right from wrong, pain from
pleasure, evil from good;
they branded me a shaking
peer pariah—best kept at a
distance; while schoolmates
branded me the class spaz,
teachers treated me an outcast,
labeled my affliction a mere
electronic brainstorm, cruelly
& calculatedly triggered by an
irascible child desiring attention,
planting lifetime seeds of self-deprecation—
sharing painful humor just to survive.
An author, poet, educator, and Pushcart nominee, Sterling Warner’s poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including The Flatbush Review, Literary Yard, The Fib Review, Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape, Shot Glass Journal, and The Atherton Review. Warner has published five collections of poetry: Without Wheels, Shadowcat, Rags & Feathers, Edges, and Memento Mori: A Chapbook Redux. Also, in August 2020, he launched, Masques: Flash Fiction & Short Stories, his first collection of fiction. Presently, Warner lives along the Hood Canal in Union, Washington and spends his free time writing, wood working, and salmon fishing.
