Dementia Poem by Mary Champion

Dementia

Through a life time we build our empire.
All the memories
all the knowledge
all the Wisdom we have gained.
Our mental borders expand with experience
and bolster us against the threat of anonymity.
Beloved faces and voices
underpin our security -our sense of self.
A fortress of familiarity keeps us safe.

Then one day, unnoticed -
somewhere in the foundations we have laid so carefully-
a brick is loosened.
One brick, and then another
until there are gaping holes in the fabric of our being.
With no defence against the brutal barbarian,
we sit helpless as it demolishes our
carefully constructed identity.
Our store of memories is ransacked,
its contents stolen or shattered-
wrenched out of context.
The people we love lose their names
and associations.
The places we knew are strange
and full of fear.
Pleasures are confined to the fleeting moment.
There is no anticipation,
no recollection,
for all that it sustains us
it might never have happened.
The only compensation
is that the disappointments are just as transient.
Overwhelmed by our confusion,
at least we do not dread the total oblivion that awaits us
when every brick has been razed to the ground
and we no longer remember that we have forgotten.

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