Before dementia, with its cruel mercy <br /> <br />freed her from those golden bonds <br /> <br />of obligations and relationships <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />(the chilling question, and so carefully expressed <br /> <br />during the morning wash and powdering, <br /> <br />‘are we… related…?) <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />she’d carefully destroyed <br /> <br />all the photos of her family; <br /> <br />while leaving all her husband’s… <br /> <br />what did that mean, to that so loving daughter…? <br /> <br />What shames can those who love, so cherish <br /> <br />as some further goad? <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />But she forgot, now that she slept downstairs <br /> <br />the photo of the grandfather whom I never met <br /> <br />(he died too early, of dread ‘cotton lung’): <br /> <br />flat, at the bottom of her dressing-table drawer.. <br /> <br />he in full Freemason’s aproned proud regalia <br /> <br />of Hope Lodge nearby Hope Street; nearby hope… <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />So now, he, on the wardrobe top <br /> <br />and I flat on the bed <br /> <br />gaze at each other in unshaped relationship <br /> <br />with our two views of her; so totally at odds; <br /> <br />except, except, for love; <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />she, immortal like that holy Maid herself, <br /> <br />girl-mother in our shared sweet thoughts; <br /> <br />out of mind but never out of mind.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dementia-remembered/
