The Home

Like lost animals they sit

Round in circles of despair

Trying to remember

Why they are even there.

Their eyes are still blinking

But have lost their spark

Their energy has faded

They are left in the dark.

Microwave meals

And countless cups of tea

The nurses never rest

From tending to the elderly.

They now are like children

Innocent and vulnerable

Their personality is gone

They can’t recognise themselves.

Their families visit

Now and again

Pretending to care

Pretending to love.

But how can they be loved

When they’re just a shell of a person

Now the empty home

Of that once vibrant soul.

The Lost Days

Days not recorded

are swirling in the air

like flies that never leave.

They buzz inside my mind

enough to remind me that

they’ll never leave me.

But I know they existed

and now are yesterdays

lost but not lost

in the great void of time.

The Day He Woke Us Up

When we were woken

Our eyes still stung with sleep

We didn’t understand

What was happening

We could still smell the candyfloss

From the fairground in our dreams

And the cold morning light

Shook our systems awake

The man we both adored

Stood before us

Crying softly

Holding a suitcase

“I’m leaving” he said

And in that moment

A part of me broke

And the room swam with pain.

Cutting Out

It’s hard cutting you out

It’s harder than I thought

I see why they call it cutting

It’s stinging like the slice of a knife

But your stabs were always deeper

And the wound you gave me never healed

So it’s time for me to reclaim my life

And not let you win with your knife.

Clothes

They cling to you

like a desperate lover

their soft touch caresses your skin.

Wrapped up in your woollen fleece

safe from the metallic world

cotton carves your cries

as silk sways in your dreams.

The hidden history

of your body

underneath the thick coat

is a knitted nightmare.

A baby’s shriek

is silenced by linen

and the dead’s last touch

is their favourite outfit.

We used to run free

naked and wild

now clothes have claimed us

in their powerful embrace.