The Lady with the Dog

She walks her dog,

Religiously every day.

Stopping to speak to folk,

Enquiring how they are.

Today, she’s speaking about the ducks with my friend.

Everyone knows her,

I recall speaking to her, too.

“I have Alzheimer’s”, she told me,

So, maybe she speaks to keep the memories alive.

Twenty-five minutes and it’s the dog’s mealtime,

She got him from the vets.

The routine keeps the mind alive;

Stops it from falling into the abyss,

Stops it from glitching.

She’s swearing now, as I write this,

Even her “fuck” sounds posh.

Now she’s telling her about the Grandpa,

He was a vet, you know, in Coventry.

Memories come rushing in,

She’s from my city,

She’s one of my own.

Why do we remember yesteryear so easily?

But forget what we did only seconds ago.

Maybe we are all in that remembering and forgetting

Maybe we are all struggling to stay alive.

Zahir Khan