Sunday 21 August 2016

Act One, Scene One: Abandonment



(Poor Richard mourns his long lost father,
lost to that void of nothingness.)

Poor Richard, heavy hearted,
filial duty now departed,
how could he have ever loved this man,
this stranger in his father’s body. 
Hero that he was, his guide and mentor,
afore that dark place took him over,
polished off his very mind     til all about him lost.

(Poor Richard backs and backs away.)

Anna :o{

Kerry at Real Toads has us writing micro poetry following the theme of “This is not what we came to see…”

The words are of how difficult my sons find it to visit their dad.  A particular son, whose dad was his hero, is visibly shaken to the point he is robbed of speech on the  occasions he visits his dad, his grief his loss is palpable.  He is slowly backing away as this is the only way he can cope.

I understand this as when my mum was robbed of her identity by that that is dementia, I found it very difficult to love this stranger  who inhabited my mothers body and eventually didn’t…

Image: courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Author: Gert Germeraad

13 comments:

HA said...

Your note adds a certain depth to the words. The pain of such a situation is so incomprehensible to others but one can feel the trace of it in your verse. Sad, etched with life.

kaykuala said...

It is most trying and frustrating to the minders especially when cleaning up their soiled person. Why their minds should desert them many refused to understand!

Hank

brudberg said...

I do know this.. i know it all too well... dementia as that stranger inside... maybe we need a strangers care to cope with it... My mother is rapidly declining too.

Kerry O'Connor said...

This is the human condition at its most painful for both father and son... Such a touching portrait from the viewpoint of one who understands too well.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

You have described with empathy and understanding how the loss of a beloved person to dementia affects his or her children. Very well done. A difficult situation for all, especially those surrounding the one with dementia.

Gillena Cox said...

A sharp and sincere poem Hank, thanks for sharing

Have a good Sunday
Mine is HERE

much love...

Magaly Guerrero said...

Loss has very strange effects on us... We think we know what we'll face... Then we see it, and must run...

Susie Clevenger said...

It is so hard to watch your parent leave you, forget you, to watch the mind devour itself. My mother had Alzheimer's.

Jim said...

Nicely told, Anna. Makes me remember, I do a lot, of the day I went to visit my Dad and he called me "Jim". Most times he called me by one of his brothers' names or an other acquaintance. That helped me to know, still, that I was family.
..

Cro Magnon said...

Luckily my people both died Compos Mentis, but I had the feeling that both were en route to become somewhat 'vague'. It's a terrible thing to lose that connection to a parent.

ADDY said...

I can imagine too well what it must be like to watch a parent's mind fade in front of you. The outside still seemingly the same but the inside lost forever.

Jenny Woolf said...

Very, very difficult. Your poetry always faces these difficult things unflinchingly but I am sure it comes at a cost.

Optimistic Existentialist said...

This resonates with me because my paternal grandmother has dementia...