04-04-2020, 05:13 AM
Impregnable
He never was a sympathetic man,
though versed in medicine and patient care;
he always had a knowing, perfect plan–
no room for others’ disagreement there.
Good company he was, and glad to laugh
at others’ foibles, never at his own;
intelligent, efficient, though not half
as wise as those who care what grief they’ve sown.
But now with memory destroyed he must
rebuild his world a dozen times a day
from hostile fantasies, for he can’t trust
a word his keepers or his loved ones say.
To see him so besieged in his own mind
gives warning not to seem, but to be kind.
He never was a sympathetic man,
though versed in medicine and patient care;
he always had a knowing, perfect plan–
no room for others’ disagreement there.
Good company he was, and glad to laugh
at others’ foibles, never at his own;
intelligent, efficient, though not half
as wise as those who care what grief they’ve sown.
But now with memory destroyed he must
rebuild his world a dozen times a day
from hostile fantasies, for he can’t trust
a word his keepers or his loved ones say.
To see him so besieged in his own mind
gives warning not to seem, but to be kind.
Non-practicing atheist