Portrait in Alzheimer’s Disease
It’s like she left and came back with a new haircut
left and came back with a scar
left and came back with different eyes, not
the eyes everyone said we shared
but the scar was gone
and she spoke a strange language and
left and came back without a son and
left and came back and never came back
Written by Michael Mark
This poem originally appeared in Santa Fe Literary Review
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One of the things I love about this poem is that the implication that our “emotional scars” help define us.
It’s so succinct, compact and powerful
It reminds me of the Japanese art of Kintsugi–repairing broken pottery with gold, in order to honor/celebrate our wounds and healing.