By Margaret Ruckert
This poem was shortlisted for the Right Now Poetry Competition, judged by Maxine Beneba-Clarke, Amanda Anastasi and Benjamin Solah. Read the shortlist here.
awaits the elderly
awaits those who least expect –
their children
I draw a portrait of the dilemma
in thick black lines that invade
and parody both our known worlds
she wakes at 7 dollars
pays for lunch with 29 minutes
each day a little less daylight
it’s what we all do – forget
but this one forgets tomorrow
and replaces yesterday
no, it’s not lies, that’s so unfair
hers – an alternative truth
tells me she went to the bank
but no, she doesn’t go to the bank
or an ATM, her card was captured
when she pressed the bank for millions
a frontal lobe is a mindfield of traps
dementia is a patient who doesn’t know
they don’t know, memory’s a dice-throw
an important fact, a street name arrives
but the number is changed to confound
the innocent, some say she’s confused
lives on the other side of the railway –
another line that divides us – my mother
on the other side of secure
Margaret Owen Ruckert, educator and poet, won the 2012 IP Poetry Book of the Year for musefood. A previous winner of NSW Women Writers National Poetry Award, she is widely published. Margaret is Facilitator of Hurstville Discovery Writers and a Cafe Poet. Her first book You Deserve Dessert explored sweet foods.
