terrypetersen

Our lives can't be measured by our final years, of this I am sure. 
(Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook)

In the Nursing Home

They call the shower
a car wash. Every other day,
lathered head to toe,

the loose-skinned residents
sit exposed on a shower chair.
Who am I?

A tiny, bent-over man,
eyes bulging,
stares through the drops,

feels himself dissolve, 
slips down the drain 
with the suds.

Who was I before
these veins raised up blue
and held tight to something?

Or to someone?
He closes his eyes
and sees flickering darkness.

Gone are his long-ago wife
and the daughter who avoids
his blank expression. 

Life hides somewhere among
the oak and maple in the courtyard,
full some years, barren others, 

among his hand-crafted bird houses,
forgotten now, splintered, rotted,   
as the man’s attendant

lifts his dried arms
into a fresh shirt
he doesn’t recognize.

Then, residents gather at round tables.
A man smiles. He nods back,
as he listens to vague stories about

their car washes. Frowns, snickers.
And where-is-the-salt-
for-this-gosh-awful-soup?

While the common room piano
waits for someone to play,
with a voice strong enough

to sing the songs
these walls know
without breaking.