Vanishing
Each day
Little by little
Memories evanesce into darkness
Alzheimer’s

Who knows when the fog descended, your intelligence
It hid your secret, until you were at the point of no return
 
But the storm of your last six weeks could not deny the plaques and tangles,
The snarled mat of mind disintegration, consuming consciousness
 
I was the one had to take your car keys, the doctors would not help
I was the one that had to hide your guns, the police would not help
 
Their fear of lawsuit left them impotent
So each day I would check on you, alone
 
Not knowing if the wind would be coming out of the north or south.
Not knowing what lay behind the closed door in the darkened room
 
Then came the day that would last forever, what would be the eye of this storm.
Your relentless desperation for a gun, wanting to die in your own bed next to Mom
 
Then with your wife safely hidden away in the sanctuary of a friend
We began our unholy race, knowing we would all lose in the end
 
So I was forced to choose; there was no solace here,
Standing on the abyss of unfathomable emotions
 
The twist of fate, the parent-child relationship spun on its head
Protecting you from yourself, Mom from your delusions
 
Oh Freud would have a field day with this
Your id isolated and locked away in all its destructive glory
 
At first you would not talk to me, volcanic eruptions of anger,
Then you held my hand, conspiring like two naughty children
 
“Let me out please, I will behave”
“I will say anything I have to, let me go home”
 
The last time I fed you sweet, cool ice cream, your eyes shined
But inside you were wasting, wasting, wasting away
 
Sinew-shrunk; just skin, bones and confusion
Fear and suffering your companion until your final
 
 
Breath

In response to Patrick Jennings Pic and a Word Challenge #172: Vanishing