In the Care of Strangers

©pralinanmi

The elders wait for time to pass
in the lost memory unit of the senior facility...
walked...or wheeled...out of their rooms
in the newness of the morning light
they are brought to the common area where
they spend their long days
lost in their minds...
often oblivious
to the comings and goings of the strangers
who are paid to care...
as I wander briefly into their lives
and they into mine
I wonder at the circumstances...
the turn of the mind
which took them to this place...
surely...their final
life's place on earth...and on
how they came to be left
in the care of strangers...
some of these before me
seem long gone
the meaning of their mumblings
known only to themselves
they ramble
within the confines of the facility to places
only they can see...
but it is the others who haunt me
those who seem resigned
to the fate which has left them
stranded in this foreign place...
the quiet light in their eyes
tells me it is neither the memories
nor the present
they have lost...
they have only retreated inward
to the times they still understand...
to the moments
which sparked their lives
before the fragmentation left them
in the care of these strangers before them........................