‘Mummy’

Her umbilical cord, no longer taut,
Jane’s retrogressive mind revivifies
myths, that her parent’s care, throughout their lives,
a golden childhood bliss had cheerly wrought.
But in reality, that bliss was short:
drugs and desertion, verging on abuse,
took foster care to prise Jane’s spirit loose –
soaring unshackled as a fledgling ought.
Now three score years have flown, more shackled she,
snared by the scourge of cognitive decay,
and though ‘Mum’ made her life a misery,
she fondly wishes she were here today;
and weeps forlornly for a solace sought
from parents whom her love had set at naught

(August 2019)
Author – Mr John Burman

[Author’s note: These sonnets chronicle the inevitable and wretched decline in my wife’s cognitive function due to Vascular Dementia from my viewpoint as her loving carer. JHB]