40th Anniversary of My Illness

by Diana Neutze
(New Zealand)

Forty years of living

with a kleptomaniac

who steals by stealth

movement, agility, grace.


But that is not all:

the thief is now leaching away

the nimbleness of time.

Last week I watched the story

of two elderly sisters

and a drowned violinist;

but last week is years ago.

As I lose a hopeful tomorrow

I become merely today

and memories of the past,

the bright flashing river

of opportunity and hope

turned into sludginess,

a dead end of days.



© 2009 Diana Neutze

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