Don't let me go

It’s all fading, into corners of my mind where I can’t see

Those phrases I’d repeat, the melodies I’d sing, the familiar footsteps of my kids coming home

I’m trying to think, I’m trying to call, I’m trying everything to not fall,

It comes to me for a fluttering second before it vanishes away like dust in a storm

I’ve seen her struggle, with every word she tries to spell and write,

Stumbling upon a memory or cheering the win of discovering knowledge that was once her superpower

I want to help but I sit beside her, in the silence of her attempted thoughts

Hoping I could freeze the feeling of love in her familiar glance

I watch her now as she skips a step, not knowing how to move her leg

The meals forgotten, her coffee goes cold lest a reminder bell rings

She’s losing herself, I’m losing her, and I lose myself in the mirror of her glazed eyes

Will we ever laugh at the old memoirs of the childhood gone and the adulthood snatched

I touch her arm, I can feel her bones, underneath the suntanned mark of her watch

She looks at me with empty eyes, I search for my name in her mind

I wish today, she’d call out as I leave, asking me to stay awhile

Her silence and my umpteen words mingle, but don’t know where to meet

I turn to see her lay in bed in a state I want to believe is peace

In the four corners of her mind lies a universe so deep

Nor her, nor I, nor the world beyond the sky, could wander through it all

To urge her once more to call me her favourite one.