A Child Again

A Child Again
(free verse)

She reached out her frail hand, lined with veins,
hands like claws tipped with unclipped nails.
Fifty years ago, her hands were smooth, supple,
small and dainty. She remembered.

She hoped just one guest looking for someone else
would stop and slightly pat her feeble hand,
just for a single moment, just for fleeting touch.
Was it to much to ask? How long had it been?

Was it last week that her Katherine visited?
It could not have been yesterday.
She would have remembered. Wouldn't she?
In l956, she won the state's spelling bee.

Her memory was sharp then, clear as a tear.
Was it time for dinner? Where was her tray?
Where was the nice orderly, the one who was kind,
The one who wheeled her to the day room?

She remembered when she walked and talked
and stopped to admire the daffodils and lilacs.
She was but a child then, did not envision days
of suffering and shameful forgetfulness.

Three shifts, different children, so confusing.
Just as when she was a child and lost her way
after recess. Have they all grown up now?
Really, all she wanted was one touch of the hand.

She longed to return to her childhood,
when Mother groomed her hair and chose her
clothes, prepared her meals and sat her down at
the table where she happily accepted her destiny.

She smiled. She was a child again.