Fragments of Love & Death

The Sometimes Departed

I see the light is fading fast;

The once deft hands that held the needles

Lie as idle as the mind, forgetting how to knit.

The body strong for its years

But your face has sunk into a stranger’s.

It is a kindness that you do not know;

I am left in a purgatory of half-mourning,

Sometimes seeing a glimpse of my childhood

In the stranger sitting where you are.

I still love the flesh the mind has abandoned;

Mourn the mind the flesh has lost.

Each time I leave with another sad memory,

And you are left with none.