Papa says an adding machine tape has gotten tangled up around his legs. He pulls it off his leg, but it's really his catheter tube, so he wets the bed. I tell him he's not in a tree, and I clean it up. He tells me all about it for an hour, and I to bed.
Then, he wakes me up, ringing the bell, to tell me I remembered his hallucination wrong. That really, it was a slide, coming down the side of a building, that he got stuck on. That I am losing my mind. I should be able to remember better.
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This was sort of how my life went with my blind father, living with him for the end of his life in rural Alabama. I love him so very much.
in Collapsible Horizon
powerful. love the "and i to bed," line. echoes of pepys...
Perfect title. Tangled inside and out.
"That really, it was a slide, coming down the side of a building, that he got stuck on."
Good writing - *
This catches perfectly the urgency of confusion.
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Powerful piece. I can feel the narrator's weariness and love. *
I find this contains much more than the word count. Beautiful and sad. Fav, for sure.
Gorgeous portrait of a difficult situation. *
Very sharp, very true.
So glad I found this. Poignant. So much told in so few words.*
You brought me up close and personal. Well done!
What a tender rendering of a complicated and difficult situation. Beautiful piece of heartfelt writing... *