Memento Mori

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By celticman

Sun, 09 Jun 2024
  • 1676 reads
24 comments
 

You’re frightened by time

Last frolics of fading white lies

Risky, holding facts

You drop them from your dry lips

Search for them on the floor

Beneath your bed

In your head

How frail a thing your life

 

Ageing, the bullet in the skull

Dementia the stun gun

Badges of honour wrinkled skin

Your faded grin

Fading photographs of people you know

People like you

Love you too

 

Brain shrunk and rotten

Floating on a sea of cerebral-spinal degeneracy

The Pandora’s Box of your mind

Memento Mori of a different kind

Haunted by your old self

You become grey and pixilated

Shuffle away like everyone else

Forgotten who you are

Who you were

 

I forget too

To come and visit you

‘Bye, Mum,’ you say

I’ll come another day

When you’re better

Love you too.

Certificate U
Biography
Historical Fiction

Comments

Submitted by Turlough on

An awful illness for the victims and the families.

Your last six lines sum up the situation extremely well.

Very good words Jack.

 

Turlough

Submitted by celticman on

It's a hard one Turlough, wishing your mum dead. 

 

Submitted by Turlough on

I understand what you're going through Jack. Talking about better times in the past and telling her you love her might help her as your words might be getting through. But it's probably harder for you than for her. It's utterly heartbreaking. 

Turlough

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

So moving celticman - and Turlough is right - worse for you than your mum. I'm so sorry you're going through this. Well deserved cherries

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Facebook and Twitter (X) Pick of the Day

Please share/retweet if you like it too

Picture Credit:
https://tinyurl.com/nhfrbayy

 

Submitted by marandina on

"You become grey and pixilated

Shuffle away like everyone else.."

That's a powerful, emotive poem.

From the heart, CM. The best way.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

It's really hard, the softness and fragility of what makes a person. Facts become "risky", "haunted by your old self" fighting fog that no one understands. It's a terrible thing for those in the battle and those left behind, and you communicate this heartbreak

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Words of love and despair. I'm really pleased that this is the pick of the day today.

Good on you Jack.

Turlough

Submitted by celticman on

thanks marinnda, turlough, insert and Di. This happened over 20 years ago. I guess as we get older and nearer the biting point of dementia (more likely to get the dreaded disease) we see things differently. 

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

How cruel it is, getting old and the accompanying fade. Relationships endure but seeing the rot set in on our loved ones certainly stings and there's the fear of seeing our future selves. Time really is frightening. A moving poem, celticman.

 

Submitted by celticman on

cheers Jane. 

 

Submitted by seashore on

Says a lot, says it all.

Submitted by celticman on

thanks seashore. 

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

A beautiful piece, celtic. I'm so sorry you went through this. It's savage.

Submitted by celticman on

cheers airy, so many of us. all different.all the same. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

This is our Poem of the Week! Congratulations! 

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

Really good poem and lots of stand out lines. The searching for things struck a chord. Really honest and well-written. 

 

Submitted by Mark Say on

I get this Jack. Going through it right now with my Dad.

 

Submitted by celticman on

cheer catherine. lots to remember and forget. 

 

Submitted by celticman on

Very sad, Mark. I'm sorry to hear it. Death is the only cure. 

 

Submitted by jennifer on

...and very close to the bone. Love your use of words.

J x

 

Submitted by celticman on

cheers jennifer

 

Submitted by hudsonmoon on

Heart jolting stuff, Jack. Going through ths at the moment with my 93 year-old father in-law. It's rough all around. Rough when he asks me who owns the house he's been living in for the past 25 years. So sorry for what your going through. Best.

Rich

 

Submitted by celticman on

cheers Rich. There's no answer, or if there is, I've forgotten the question.