I have been watching on Channel 4, a British television channel, a programme called Great Canal Journeys, with those wonderful actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West, who have been married a very long time. When not acting on stage or screen, they spent most of their free time on a barge on canals in England and Europe. Recently, Tim West opened up about Prunella’s dementia, and in the last episode they met up with their son and granddaughter in France. It was clear that Prunella is changing and I could see parallels with my mother, who has a form of dementia. Watching that final episode prompted the following poem.
Demented Loneliness
Loneliness
In the hours between waking and falling
Asleep again
–
Asleep again
Not feeling the distance between
Loneliness
–
While bodies can still find each other
Minds drift apart
writing in north norfolk 