It’s So Easy To Dismiss Him

It’s so easy to dismiss him now,
This man whose mind betrays him.
This man once full of vibrant energy

Of hand-holding devotion
Of physical long-tall presence
Of booming lyric voice
Of cross-country travels

Who now sits, most days
Quietly on the sofa
Only rising to tend
His beloved bird feeders
Waiting for a visitor.

He struggles to communicate these days
His brow wrinkled in concentration,
Trying to process the smallest of things.
He forgets to eat, so he has grown
Quite thin.

A phone call home won’t detect
This lonely lost-ness
Now that he lets his wife
Do all the talking.

It’s only when you come for a visit
And you ask him,
“Daddy, would you like to go
For a ride in the car?”

That this gentle, polite man
Lets you know how hard this is.

“Oh please, can I go?
I’d give anything to
Get out of this place.”

JEHW
May, 2015