Dementia II

Dementia II

Peel this out

It's red tender skin

Blessed by irritation

Peel me down

Goes on like shriveled toes

Painted with mauve and fading faces

Shove off sheets and make us anxious.

I'll fit my nail just below her skin

Peel up the shriveled wet paper bridge

Of her nose

“You look just like my grand daughter,

You would love her

dimples,

cheeks,

short stature,

and supple peaks of life and youth.

You-You would love her.”

Her chasm gaped open lined by quartz, charcoal and stones

Shaped like a crescent. Like she had set

this precedent of sparking irises and nonsensical smiles,

For the rest of us

Golden Intentions blessed with fears

Blessed with forgotten words and empty cases

Blessed with “How much longer is this wait Miss I need to see my grand daughter.”

“What is your name dear,

You are lovely, legs are sturdy, grounded bronze stumps like mine before they pruned,

I would peel them if I could, reveal their past if I could…

Have you found love?

Have you met him and seen his supple lips, ran your finger down the seam of his hips. You have not met him, by the lack of gleam in your eye I can see it…

You would love her.

You would love my granddaughter.

Never fall in love with an Italian Man he will beat you senseless.

My feet are cold could you cover them dear?

Fall in love with your grounded stumps and pray down to the earth. You do pray don't you? I beg you find salvation, you have not met Him either, by the lack of meaning in your palms I can read it…”

Filling my lungs with her precaution,

let me leave and bless my life,

before my very eyes begin to wither,

before I am coated in her words and broken memories,

before I cannot remember my own name and spill its syllables on my skin just for them to shrivel.

Never let them shrivel,

peel me down,

peel me down.

“What is your name dear,

You look just like my granddaughter.

You would love her, you have lovely eyes,

And dimples,

You would-would love her”