Dead Letters

[vagantes]

How many anxious hearts have waited for messages, which misdirection has sent to the dead letter office. What an insight into character must those individuals obtain who have the examination of those letters whose absence must have chilled those would-be recipients.

Cousin Judith born, unloved in a war, with Down's,
And coming unwittingly toward the end of her long life
Has dementia. In the corridors, when we visit,
Gray shadows stand hunched into themselves;
An old man stares and screams unceasingly
Remembering some pain he felt when he could feel.
The supervisor makes us tea and talks of death.
While circling us as we sit the residents do not connect.
Empson's words about waste ring true,
But the biggest loss is that of contact.