AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES

AWAY WITH THE FAIRIES How do I know if I really have dementia When remembering my name is the goal Others maybe too kind to say the word How they look, it’s what I have inferred Less memory lapse, more a smoking hole Perhaps I just stare, my brain in absentia It’s much more than mere memory loss As I inhabit my little private world inside There are moments when it’s all in focus Yet explanations sound like hocus-pocus My thoughts no longer like a roaring tide They just lap on the shore, full of dross It has not been a sudden thing, I am sure Just a downward slide on a helter-skelter Everyone is always nodding and smiling Whoever they are, they’re so beguiling But this warm blanket offers me shelter I have not felt quite as detached before I’m reliving a time of my younger years Like pulling on a loose thread of cotton Images, as if from an old slide projector Yet sometimes I wish I had a lie detector It seems bits of my life I have forgotten Right now, I cannot explain these tears My mind says, but my body won’t obey How can I inhabit this old wrinkled shell There’s so many faces I do not recognise Almost everything now is like a surprise And why do they tell me I’m doing well I do suspect that they have put me away