Member-only story
POETRY
A Poetic Glimpse Into Dementia
When Yesterday Becomes a Puzzle
She stands before the mirror, a stranger staring back.
Familiar creases map an unfamiliar face,
each line a story she can no longer read.
Names slip through her fingers like water, faces blur into indistinct shapes. Her past becomes a series of fading photographs, edges curling,
colours washing away.
The house she’s lived in for decades becomes a labyrinth.
Rooms shift and change, and doorways leading to unexpected places.
She wanders, lost in her own home,
searching for something she can’t quite remember.
Time plays tricks — sometimes she’s a young woman again,
waiting for her husband to come home from work,
only to find a grown daughter gently reminding her that he passed years ago.
Words dance on her tongue, rearranging themselves into nonsensical patterns.
She reaches for them, grasping at wisps of meaning that dissolve like morning mist.
Frustration builds, a dam holding back a lifetime of thoughts and memories she can no longer express.
