Nation needs dementia strategy

Mother and daughter spliced together
 attached to the same stalk. Peeling 
 back cob leaves reveals kernel 
 after kernel of mother’s decay,
 until daughter cares for an empty husk; 
 withering in their private drought.
  
 At her mother’s funeral, daughter 
 dreams of soaking in the tub, 
 wrapping herself in freshly 
 laundered sheets with no
 one to interrupt her sleep.
  
 She clings like a climbing vine nurse 
 who asserted “There’s no right way 
 to grieve.”
  
 First appearing www.Bywords.ca January 2019