Tucked Under The Skin

Just below the surface

tucked under the skin

Making room for the stillness

Until the worry begins

As sly as a secret

or past memory

I try to forget

you aren’t who you used to be

A care giver of sorts

to the you who is now

Random pieces and parts

come back to me somehow

And your face looks familiar

and your smile returns

The same frame and figure

but a vacancy burns

In as quick as a moment

in the blink of an eye

Before anyone knows it

that part of you says goodbye

Lost again in the past

another place before me

A lifetime goes so fast

returning occasionally

Then the mind becomes void

and hot tears line our faces

Pain we try to avoid

but it’s settled into its place

And your eyes blankly stare

as you try to remember

Vacant and bare

and I try to pretend or

Stay positive, losing you each time gets harder

we smile, confused

Sanity seems discarded

reality subdued

daily breaking our hearts

Until one day the leaves fall

and the wind breaks the branches

And you don’t return at all

and your twinkle stops dancing

Absorbed into your mind

consumed with the darkness

Leaving me here behind

abandoned by the madness

I hope there is peace

in the place you are left to

I hold your memories with me

hoping I will never forget you

A/N: in honor of the great minds lost to Alzheimer and dementia