Seven Ways of Looking at Dementia

Jane Thomas
  1.   blindly in denial
  2.   straight in the eye – speaking
    calmly
    using only short
    simple
    sentences
  3. as a list maker –
    – sit down for socks
    – don’t pay the milkman
    – press green button after number
    – eat Magnums
    – rations? Ask.
  4. through the bottom of your brandy glass
  5. like a puppeteer doing an end-of-season run on a Victorian pier
  6. as a wake.
    a living decade
    under vigilant watch
  7. as the shuffle of a solo chain gang.

you get bigger in the pane 

the mottled father figure 

defrosting in the light 

to wriggle with your keys 

like a fire juggler in lesson one 

you do not ask who I am   

in addition, the chain is not on.

 

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Jane Thomas has been writing poetry in some form for most of her life, but over the last few years has been working on her craft and spending more time with words. She finds writing poetry both therapeutic and inspiring. She has had the honour of being published in the Oakland Art Review, The Oxford Student, and the Esalen People Magazine.She has just started a creative writing course at The University of Oxford and is enjoying working with published and inspirational tutors. Previously she has enjoyed short courses at The Arvon Foundation, The Gladstone library, and Esalen. She is an active member of the Swansea Writing Circle and The Oxford Poetry Centre and a member of the Poetry Society. She has read at Green Templeton College, Oxford, The Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea, and Common Ground, Oxford. She is working on her first pamphlet and is enjoying taking her words out to the world.