Verse Portraits: May 2012

This began as a game some bloggers played in 2008, to write about people who'd made an impact, in the same number of words as one's age, every day for a year. I did them less often and went on longer, adding one word each birthday. I stopped in 2016 and incorporated them into my main poetry blog. In 2019 I resumed the project and gave it its own blog again, with a new name, where it may unfold at its own (slow, intermittent) pace. I've labelled these verse portraits, but they're more like quick sketches: mere glimpses, impressions....

Thursday 31 May 2012

Nursing Home: Keith

He’s thin and slighty stooped

but the grey hair’s thick and wavy

and he moves at normal speed —

except when he’s with her.

Holding her hand

or arm around her

he leads her to meals

or out to the sunny garden.

She turns to him

a gentle, vacant face.

He greets us cheerily,

eyes full of comprehension.

We realise he lives here

to be with her.

He looks happy.

So does she.

Cross-posted from my poetry blog, The Passionate Crone, from whence it is submitted to Poetry Pantry #101 at Poets United.

[Poem #91]

Nursing Home: Bobbi

Bobbi walks quickly

along the corridors,

keeping to the edges.

One day she tells me,

whispering:

‘I hurt my hip. Now

I have to keep walking

or it seizes up.

I feel conspicuous

and embarrassed.’

She is slim

in her neat slacks

and cardigan,

sweet face framed

by a short pageboy.

Her eyes widen

a moment and I glimpse

fear, want to hug her

but will not intrude

on her frail dignity.

Cross-posted from my poetry blog, The Passionate Crone, from whence it is submitted to Poetry Pantry #101 at Poets United.

[Poem #90]