Vanishing Memories

The end is hard

With vanishing memories

And blank faces

Words don’t come easy

And thoughts are hard

What’s real, what’s not?

It hurts to be here

To be alive in body

But dying in mind

I am not whole

I’m not who I was

I am a vacant person

I can’t place the names

Of my beloved family

The pain fills their eyes

Its hurts to see

The pain in their eyes

And their fullness of heart

I am with them

But I am not with them

I am a vacant person

I am diminishing bit by bit

Slowly fading away

Here in body, but not in mind

Jo Anne Kennedy

December 2015