One of the Saddest Things I’ve Witnessed

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Mom sitting
on the couch, alone
Disease has immobilized
her.
On the turntable, Both Sides Now by Judy Collins
is playing.
She is singing along,
getting all the words wrong.
My mother is dying.
Not realizing that I am there.
Seeing for myself—
The eventual fade.
I leave the house…
Crying my eyes out…
Dementia is a mother fucker.
A brutal carnage of brain matter…
I really don’t know life
at fucking all…

Dan Provost (Berlin, New Hampshire)

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