Each week, many of our residents meet for Creative Writing Group with Lisa McKenzie. The class offers a creative outlet and the opportunity to flex their writing muscles.
This month, we’d like to highlight a poem written by resident Edith Samuels, which tackles the troubling subject of Alzheimer’s disease.
Introducing the Eradicator
There he is
The faceless, hooded sorcerer
Cloaked in his flowing cape
Thick and black
As a moonless, starless night.
He moves imperceptibly at first
Like a specter, nearly invisible
Selecting his unsuspecting subjects
Seemingly at random.
Silently, surreptitiously
Without flourish or abracadabra
He makes their memories vanish
One by one by one.
Slowly, he grows more adept
With sleight of hand
Erasing words and thoughts
Ultimately smothering
Words and thoughts and memories completely
In the folds of his shroud-like cape,
Transforming them into the disappeared
Never to return.
Where do they go?
Does he have secret deep pockets
Concealed in the lining of that capacious cape
Where he collects and hide them?
Oh, he is patient.
He bides his time.
He grows
He expands
Relentless and wily
Until there is nothing left
But him.
Nothing stops him.
Not hate
Not even love.
He always wins.
At least, for now.