Deaf Utopia

Three hundred years ago
on the island of Martha’s Vineyard
everyone knew sign language
because the mainland was far away
and there was a lot of inbreeding—
cousins marrying cousins—
and a recessive genetic quirk

got passed down and spread around
so that everyone had at least
a couple of Deaf people in their family
so everyone knew sign language
whether or not they were Deaf
and when a young fisherman
from the mainland arrived on the island
he couldn’t tell the difference
because there was no difference
between the hearing and the Deaf
and the signing was the most beautiful singing
the fisherman had ever seen in his life
and he resolved to learn it
and he fell in love with a Deaf islander
who was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in his life
and she taught him her language of faces and hands
and gave him a boatload of kids
some of whom were Deaf
and some of whom were hearing
and all of whom were fishermen
and all of whom signed fluently
and elegantly and eloquently
with their little flying hands
and their beautiful animated faces
but this was three hundred years ago
long before there were audiologists
and hearing aids and cochlear implants
and geneticists with genocidal
good intentions of ridding the world
of Deaf people for the good of
Deaf people and the world

By: Paul Hostovsky

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Paul Hostovsky makes his living in Boston as a sign language interpreter. His poems and essays appear widely online and in print. He has won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, and has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer’s Almanac, and the Best American Poetry blog. Website: paulhostovsky.com