Privy To

“Why did you leave me here,” she yelled,
“I hate you most of all!”
Tears in his eyes, he told her, “I love you,
And you get hurt each time you fall.”

He brought raspberries from their garden
He picked fresh that very morning.
Their life survived for 55 years until,
Time stopped it, with little warning.

Only one of many residents,
Torn suddenly from their home…
Now a roommate with a hundred,
Finding themselves, in a crowded room alone.

Gale had a heart attack, and Patty,
Lost her hearing, then her thoughts,
Hildred has her memories of resistance,
Anti-war buttons and life’s whatnots.

Ed remembers, still he has a wife,
She lives right down the hall…
Regrets the last sixty-two years,
Regrets that one decision, most of all.

East wing has their best stories to tell,
Of earlier friends, now late.
Some give in to the nothingness,
Others fight for a curious fate.

Patty forgot just where she is,
George shakes his fist with rage,
At a place where time still matters,
But disintegrates with age.

A generation younger,
I stop to tie a woman’s shoe….
With a cinematic vision, privy
To my own end, in plain view.