Never Mind

I picked our album up and leafing through
photos of family, holidays and fun,
was saddened by the haunting change in one
robbed of the verve and vibrancy I knew –
and daily cherished. Each and every day
minutiae of worsening leaves it’s mark;
shards of non sequiturs, your vital spark
incogitant in vacuous display
of obstinate denial. Constant care
erodes to bleak despair as ‘never mind’,
– a phrase I use too readily I fear –
supplants my explanations, not unkind,
countered by obdurate incomprehension:
a tinderbox of conjugal dissension.

(October 2018)
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]