I can't recall her smile, her touch,
     her soft voice.
 I can't remember these things anymore.
 No movement.  No change.
 A childhood has been torn away
 and the frozen, dreadful sleep consumes her. 


 I have seen the regretting age
      in her lifeless eyes.
 I have seen the awful mortality.
 The silence.  The sadness.  The loss.
 I am older now,
 and I will find smaller dreams to live by.