• Ivory Palace

    Alzheimer’s is the mind crumbling away
    While the shell stays
    Whole, untouched, unaffected
    As it drains all sense of
    Who you are
    What you were

    She died that way
    The disease decaying Her mind
    Butchering Her spirit
    But leaving Her body intact

    Where was the Woman who’d
    Captivated my heart
    With Her wax elephants
    And velveteen bears?

    Reduced to tears
    Because She can’t recognize
    My face

    She’d lived in an Ivory Palace

    What was really a
    Second story apartment
    In a worn out building
    With stairs She could
    Barely climb

    But to Her it was a Palace
    With sprawling lawns and
    Bejeweled turquoise peacocks
    Replacing cracked, grey sidewalks
    Where dirty sneakers played

    Cracked
    Like her mind had become
    Shattered
    Into a million tiny pieces

    Her Ivory Palace would
    Fade away
    Only to be replaced by
    Vacant Hospital walls
    That She could no longer imagine
    Away