On Seeing Tenderness In Childhood
Very few really tender moments
in my childhood do I find.
My memories abound
with normal things, and also
with happy celebrations,
failures and successes,
good times and bad.
But I recall one day
visiting a man from church.
Inside his small apartment
my mother took me.
I can’t remember why.
I just recall this elderly white-haired man
waiting on his white-haired wife
with absolute tenderness.
She did not even know him, really.
Alzheimers had claimed her.
But he hovered over her
with the enduring and endearing
patience and love
born from years and years
of companionship and true intimacy
that no disease
can obliterate.
June 14, 2021
For Malabika Ray Choudhury's 'A Tender Moment in Childhood' Contest
Entered July 4 for 'A Brian Strand July 4' Poetry Contest
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