Synthesis

[tectak]

Edit #1

Sleepless: eyes closed,
the open arms of an elm tree,
a mime show of shadows
spreading across mother’s rose
colored kitchen walls.

Each memory a cedar closet:
notebooks of unwritten poems,
a tin of icebox cookies baked
back in Wisconsin; dead limbs
of a winter birch in the side yard,
and father, as he lay dying:
femur, blood, urine; nothing
working, not even his dark sleep.

I dreamed about the strength
of this man’s trunk; his language,
his energy, the way his colors changed
year-to-year.

Who dreams about love
with an old year sputtering,
a new year tip-toeing in?

I wonder if he ever dreamed
at all? teeny nit. Not a question. Statement. That is all.

I never asked. Quite



Original

No one sleeps
they are, at least,
restless: eyes closed,
the open arms
of an elm tree,
a mime show
of shadows
spreading across
rose colored
kitchen walls

Who dreams
about love
with an old year
sputtering,
a new year
tip-toeing in?

Any memory is
a cedar closet:
notebooks
of unwritten
poems,
a tin of icebox
cookies baked
back in Wisconsin;
the dead limbs
of the winter birch
in the side yard
the dead limbs
of father as he lay
dying: femur, blood,
urine; nothing
working, not even
his dark sleep

I dreamed
about the strength
of this man’s trunk;
his language,
his energy,
the way his color
changed
year-to-year

As he lay dying,
I wonder if
he ever dreamed
at all?

I never asked.

Well, the question was always there…I just never asked it aloud because the man didn't have a brain left and I doubt even he knew if he dreamed. I understand your "nit" but such is the tragedy of Alzheimer's. It has no logic.  Printed? maybe change.  Read aloud? Not sure I could read this aloud without the inflection in my voice.

Hi 71
though I have copied this into the spotlighting forum, it does not mean it is over I read it out loud and cannot get the relevancy of "femur" to fit in. By the way, the writer does not have to suffer from the subject matter. It was you who put a question mark after a statement.
Best,
tectak