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| Image source: Lowbrow Art Company |
In this never-never land of the disabled
there are unshed tears, I know.
Tears of pain, stoutly endured,
Tears of frustration stopped in mid-flow.
Intermittent drops causing concern
are those of loneliness - forever alone.
Sometimes a good cry can be of comfort
After being deprived of all that one owns.
My unshed tears near the surface
when I meet tiny Alice
wandering the halls endlessly,
Seeking her life that used to be.
Ninety-four year old Jean Thurston Liebert, a New Verse News regular, has moved from her home into an assisted living/residential care facility where she has taken-up the banner for society's oldest. Her daughter tells us, “Because of fading vision and her lack of mobility, Mom taught herself to use an iPad. And as soon as Comcast connects her, she'll be emailing the next in her poetry series on those ‘sentenced to life’ in facilities for the aged. For my mother to live in this environment, resist being treated as a child -- a ‘non-person’ -- and to so ably write about the indignities encountered by the very oldest of our seniors, gives hope of a better future for all of us."