Arrival

Mom arrived at the Care home this afternoon.  We had quite a wait for her but they ambulance crew found their way in the end.  It was all very confusing for her but everyone was very kind to her.  I hope she will settle well, and get over the wanting to come home with us.  The fear of being left alone somewhere strange must be truly awful for her.

This poem by Simon Armitage was taught to GCSE students for some years.  I found it powerful then.  Now...

November


We walk to the ward from the badly parked carwith your grandma taking four short steps to our two.
We have brought her here to die and we know it.

You check her towel. soap and family trinkets, pare her nails, parcel her in the rough blankets
and she sinks down into her incontinence.

It is time John. In their pasty bloodless smiles,
in their slack breasts, their stunned brains and their baldness
and in us John: we are almost these monsters.

You're shattered. You give me the keys and I drive
through the twilight zone, past the famous station
to your house, to numb ourselves with alcohol.

Inside, we feel the terror of the dusk begin.
Outside we watch the evening, failing again,
and we let it happen. We can say nothing.

Sometimes the sun spangles and we feel alive.
One thing we have to get, John, out of this life.