There is little in life so devastating as watching someone you love descend into the abyss of Alzheimer’s disease. Sadly, too many of us have seen a parent, a spouse, or a friend journey down this dark road. This Monday’s Poem of the Week reflects on the struggles of all those who are desperately trying to spark a glimmer of light in the memory halls of one whom they cherish. It’s a slowly losing battle, but one they cannot help but fight, even as the cruel enemy captures ever greater parts of the person they cherish.
Playing Word Games
I sprinkle hints,
seeds in the withering garden
of your brain,
hope words will sprout
blossom on your lips.
But deep in the gray-matter,
atrophy spreads like a biblical pestilence.
In that un-Eden,
hummingbirds dart,
like crazed syllables,
scatter alphabets
like fallen petals
amid stems of thought –
bare, but pretending to be
bright. Colors for flowers,
all I could expect.
All you could expect:
bright – colors – flowers
bare, but pretending
amid stems. Thought
petals fall,
like scattered alphabets.
Syllables unleash darts
like crazed hummingbirds
in that un-Eden’s spreading
biblical pestilence. Pushing up
through gray atrophy,
the blossoms on your lips:
hope. Will words sprout
in your brain,
green the withering garden
if I sprinkle enough seeds?
- Susan Frances Martinello
Medico Musings 
Oh, my goodness. This is what poetry was meant to be. 🙏🌹
Thank you for your kind words. Be well.
Yes, Jorge, it is so sad when you have to realize that your loved one is on the slow road to oblivion. Many tears are cried, so much is tried. But we can do no more than take the loved one in our arms, hold them and accompany them with deep love into the darkness of oblivion.
Thank you for your comment, which is poetry in itself. And like poetry, so true! Be well.