Two for One

BY TABITHA DOAN, GRADE 12

He was always a people person, present and engaged But over the last few years he changed Once the loudest man in the crowd He has slowly faded into the background A man once full of conscious conversation Looks for a nod of confirmation before Walking through an open door

A man with the best jokes and an even better laugh Now sometimes forgets the name of his other half If you ask him a question, his thoughts tend to stray Like the sand in an hourglass, his thoughts slowly slip away

She tells me she can’t help but laugh sometimes Because if she didn’t, she’d just sit and cry, asking why: Why him? Why me? Why a disease that leaves behind A living breathing corpse without his mind? Stealing so much of his soul, I can only recognize him from time to time From the small glimpse of a keyhole through which he rarely shines anymore His memories kidnapped and held captive behind a locked door

His mind’s not all there, but his body still resides Just looking at his eyes reminds me of the times we should have embraced Back when he knew my name and not just my face And I’m scared that these memories in my head will be replaced By the empty space in his La-Z-Boy next to the fireplace

The urge to say goodbye weighs heavily in my mind But how do you say goodbye to someone who’s not there most of the time? It would almost be easier if his mind was completely gone Instead of dropping in once in awhile, and never staying too long

But when he is with us, that’s almost the hardest part Because that gives us hope, not in our heads, but in our hearts And my heart breaks, with the feeling of despair Knowing I can do nothing, that he’s far beyond repair I just can’t believe that life can be so sad and so unfair

We are told that we’re born, we live and we die And those are facts that we can’t deny I believed what I was told to be precise I never expected one could possibly die twice