Dementia

A poem about memories and forgetting them

Photo by @plqml // felipe pelaquim on Unsplash

Memories of you
The past is gone
Wondering how long
A memory
Will stay strong.

A vision in their head
It’s you they see instead
Can’t remember the face
Because they know
You are now dead.

The memories return
Recurring thoughts
Never last
The present is here
The hours are dear.

Faces disappear
Wiped from the mind
Returning
In a moment of reprise
But then the dementia
Muddles them unkind.

A person who forgets
Is never forgotten
Cherishing the days
When they see us for real
Before disintegrating
Into the abyss of time
A horrendous ordeal
No one should feel.