Alzheimer’s Poem by Gert Strydom

To where have all the words gone
and why are memories
fading away,
as if they were never
meant to be?

Calculus and math
have taken a hike
and normal speech,
is away on a motorbike
and has left for good.

Like a clown to people
around me I act,
without knowing what
they found so funny
and why they look at me
as if I am mad.

What has happened to me
and where’s my integrity
and what road have my dignity taken
and why can’t I just be me?