Words of the Elderly

Years ago words came as if unbidden

Opportunistic free flowing

More and more they must now be summoned

And some, in defiance, decline to heed the call

For hours, until ultimately they say, Okay

Here I am.

And some remain hidden

Retired to some place of rest and leisure

To live as faint hints of their former selves

never again available though they sometimes

Send as a substitute a distant relation who says

Will I do?

But more and more none answer the summons

Indifferent to the needs of the host

Satisfied to leave the caller mute and frustrated

For though the words have died and withered away

Thinking lingers on and the desired word is supplanted

By a tear.