The end of some lives
Seems gravely out of balance
Not at all deserved
Notes:
This 5-7-5 poem is a collaboration between Cie and Misty.
You can stop here and just appreciate the poem as is, or you can read about our motivation.
When there are diseases that do this:
Turning a highly intelligent, very aware and introspective individual
Into a terrified, bewildered shadow of themselves
Then some fate or power needs a can of this opened on it.
In the meantime, the rest of us need to support research into outfoxing these malevolent mind stealing diseases.
When are we going to stop talking about it?
Not till a cure is found!
~Cie and Misty~
For this guy, and everyone like him whose mind has been stolen by dementia
I very heartwarming and special poem. I've enjoyed reading your work this month.
ReplyDeleteThis haiku is relevant to many conditions of us oldies, as well at the tragedy of dementia.
ReplyDeleteBullseye! Going to miss your writes :(
ReplyDeletethe end is the beginning of a new circle,
ReplyDeletei am sure you mean that.
lovely and brave thought there for the octoberwrimon theme
Cindy, I am a firm believer in reincarnation and have been for 32 years now. The person we wrote the poem about is too. However, this does not mean that the way he is passing from this world is "good." I have watched my own relatives endure dementia. I took care of people with dementia for 25 years. It is not a gentle passing into twilight. It is horrible. I would commit suicide were I to get a dementia diagnosis. I would not put myself through that, nor would I put my son through it. If this man had known exactly the kind of hell his life would become and the kind of hell it would become for his family, he would have killed himself too.
DeleteI'm sure that you didn't mean to trivialize such a horrific matter. However, a belief in reincarnation or an afterlife does not mean that illnesses such as this become trivial. There is unbelievable suffering before the body passes. Unlike a purely physical process, the person loses their cognition and their recognition of those they care about and who they were before all is done. This is the most horrific thing of all.
I know that our way out of this world is not determined by the kind of people we were, or this gentleman (gentle man) would have simply gone to sleep and not woken up again in this world. He does not deserve what he is going through. I know that just because we are good people, we are not rewarded with a good death. I guess I'm just a simpleton, because I've never quite been able to resign myself to that.
This issue means a lot to me. I also watched my father go through six years of physical and cognitive decline before finally, mercifully passing. He had the small comfort of still recognizing his family up to the end. This fellow doesn't have even that. He is effectively in hell, and I can never find that acceptable.
Apologies for the rant, as I'm sure you in no way meant to offend. However, this is a subject that means the world to me, and in spite of the simplicity of the poem, the matter itself is in no way simple.
Sp true and said with strength!
ReplyDelete