A Place Within

This poem I write after visiting the nursing home and seeing so many that just seemed to live within themselves, all alone, no one to care. I would take my boys to the local nursing home to visit, asking for the ones that had no visitors. My boys would go all over the room hugging them and talking to them and seeing the people’s faces light up with joy. Many thought their grandchildren had come to visit. I think this is why my boys who are grown men now are so compassionate and loving.

I took my kindergarten class to sing for them one year. It was lovely but what touched my heart was this one woman as I walked by her grabbed my arm and started calling me by another name from long ago. She thought I was her daughter and asked me why I did not wear the dress she sent me. I told her it was because it was at the cleaners. She seemed content with that. She held my hand and stroked my arm and talked to me the whole time and was so thrilled that I was there. I learned later that her daughter brought her, dropped her off and never returned to visit her again. I wanted to cry. She would tell everyone that walked by that I was her daughter and I would just smile. I hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek when we left and told her I loved her. She died shortly after that and it always touched my heart and this is when I wrote this poem.

A Place Within

With soles worn and body weak

traipsing along well-worn trails

Gnarled knees and a twisted back

And  a mind full of human tales

A path framed with rolling grass

Empty of human voice

Desolate to the ordinary man

But tis his only choice

Eyes that see only inner sights

Ears that hear the past

Lips devoid of any sound

And a body that can not last

The creaking rocker slows to a halt

Closed eyelids flicker in pain

A hand fluttering to his chest

As he returns to the rolling plain

© danLrene 1996

One of the things that taught me to always treat others how I wanted to be treated. That has never left me.