Isolation

Back in March when isolation really began for the Pandemic, I had been visiting my husband in a nursing home almost every day.  When visiting became a threat to the safety of the residents, I could no longer visit, except to wave at him from a distance, or see him through the glass window in a door. That is when I wrote this poem (I am not a poet, but I will call it that.)

I think some of my earlier art may show some of what I felt….

          Isolation
 
 Me, Myself and I
 I talk with them every day
 Coronus encircles
 Not yet here
 Surrounds in Silence
 As dawn arrives
 Earth is our dependable friend
 With her sunrise, and sunset
 And lovely embracing breeze
  
 Routines have shattered
 No daily visit to
 Sit in the courtyard
 Work the newspaper puzzle
 His intellect still there
 With the sometimes answer
 Of an obscure fact
 Only, then, he might ask
 If I am his wife,
 And, "How many years
 Have I lived?"
  
 No one can visit the wheel-chaired souls
 No one will kiss the cheeks
 No one will hold the hands
 No one will wheel
 Chairs into sunlight
  
                          Nancy Seib
                          March 24, 2020 

5 thoughts on “Isolation

  1. I found your poem very moving. Losing a loved one to dementia is very hard under any circumstances, but the pandemic has made everything more complicated. The artwork reflected the emotions of the poem perfectly.

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  2. Thanks, Nancy, for sharing this with us. It is definitely a very personal statement about how this awful virus has affected you and Don so much more than many of the rest of us. Please take care,Nancy D

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  3. I beg to differ. You are a poet after all. That was beautiful. I think many would identify with your experience.  Send it out.  Maybe the Senior magazine since that is the group most affected. s

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  4. Nancy,
    Your piece with the negative figure really spoke to me. It’s like memory. We remember certain experiences, and there are missing pieces. The place may still be there but that figure in time, is not.
    Thanks for the post

    Like

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