Two Poems: Dedicated To My Mother As She Deteriorates With Dementia...
Family Lost
"This is my home"
She says without a smile
I listen
Quietly tearful all the while
"All those I loved once filled that living room
Where much living now has turned to lifeless gloom"
"And at that table family all would eat
Oh the smell of minted peas and roasted meat"
"Children playing, laughter everywhere,
Conversation filled the homely air"
Their absence now is more than she can bare
Her husband John has long since gone
she never loved again
I even thought she would submit
but soldiered on in pain
"They all found other places now to go… apart from you"
She said
Then cried and bowed her trembling head
For once I had no clever words to say
As I watched my mother's broken heart give way
I held her in my arms and kissed her head
I wept with her
Then nothing more was said
Of Moments Passed
She looks beyond her present state
No future does she see
With wrinkled hand she hesitates
To sip her cup of tea
Her eyes but look with pleasures lost
That shone in younger years
A handkerchief with name embossed
To hide the forming tears
Her living room without a sound
Still so dimly lit
With family photos all around
Silently she sits
She trembles as she moves to speak
But words have long since gone
Manages to sigh then weep
And wonders what went wrong
I hold her frail and withered hand
She gazes in my eyes
I cannot find the words to say
As I watch her slowly die