Dementia
‘black with widening amnesia’
Derek Walcott
When his sleeping face
was a scrunched tissue,
wet with babbling,
you came, unravelling a joy,
making him euphoric, dribbling
from his mouth–
you simplified a complicated man,
swallowed his past
until your breath was
warm as Caribbean
concrete–
O tender syndrome
steady in his greying eyes,
fading song
in his grand dancehall,
if you must,
do your gentle magic,
but make me unafraid
of what is
disappearing.
źródło: Read A Little Poetry
10.09.2026