Literacy - You Have to Be Hard of Hearing to Understand

As a teenager, Brian Lalonde wrote the following poem/essay to express how he felt about being hard of hearing: Don’t forget about hard of hearing because we belong to same world too. You never think about us because both worlds think that they are true. Really we belong to both worlds the hearing and the deaf. But when you’re hard of hearing you are always left out. You have to be hard of hearing to understand.

In hearing world people see us with hearing aid and they think we are deaf. But we have some good speech we were brought up in the hearing world.
You have to be hard of hearing to understand.

In the deaf world we use our speech very well and also we sign. They are turned off if they see us speak. No matter, when we sign they think we belong to hearing world. That is not true.
You have to be hard of hearing to understand.

We have been on both sides of the world because we can speak and sign. We can still communicate with two worlds. Many times the hearing has made fun of us because of our hearing aids. Deaf make fun of us because of our good speech.
You have to be hard of hearing to understand.

We feel like we have lost interest in both of the worlds. Many times we miss the hearing’s conversation but they say to us "You are not important." If we miss what the deaf say, they sign "Train gone."
You know how we feel?
You have to be hard of hearing to understand.

Sometimes hearing people see us following a hearing person’s conversation. They say to us "You don’t need an interpreter." We have to tell them many times that we can lip-read most of the time.
You have to be hard of hearing to understand.

We learn to accept the worlds and try to ignore negative things about our speech or sign. We are happy that we can still communication with two worlds.
You have to be hard of hearing to understand.