jdubqca

poetry by j matthew waters

Archive for the tag “dementia”

28 Mar 2025

pressing the pause button


dementia may not be such a bad thing
especially from the inside

most questions become answered
though quickly enter the ether as unanswerable
—as if congealing into indifference

refrigerator door
& kitchen corner counter
well they’re mainly message boards now
[inside a wireless house]
acting as magnets for eyes passing by
—appointments & reminders
written in an all too familiar cursive

the day & date can always be found
in the the recycle bin in the garage
—yet another focal point

so many afternoons can be found
sitting on the familiar recliner
messing with the old tape recorder
pausing & playing [but not really listening]
rewinding & fast forwarding
—and vice versa
hoping to find that one sweet spot
sometime back in the roaring nineties


march two thousand twenty-five
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

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04 Jul 2015
8 Comments

imaginary figments


in the dementia ward they
played poker with toothpicks
and told off-color jokes everyone
laughed at but nobody understood

nothing is real here one of them said
you’re all just figments of my imagination

I used to love fig newtons another one said

they don’t exist you idiot
not fig newtons or chocolate chip cookies
not milky way bars or rice crispy treats
not sugar and spice or anything nice

everyone chuckled except for the one
who used to love fig newtons

oh just shut up and deal he said
before the lights go out



july two thousand fifteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

Posted in Poetry and tagged , , ,
08 Jan 2015

that someone else


for ten seconds I sat there
dumbfounded
the image so clear in my mind
what I was going to do
who I was going to be
but then out of nowhere
all clarity left my memory
and for ten seconds I sat there
perplexed how I lost the vision
or the means to flip back on the light

for a moment I nearly cried
and another ten seconds later
I became myself again


january two thousand fifteen
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved

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