Like a sailboat being enveloped
by a slow encroaching fog
her memories are fading
in pieces,
stories repeated unaware
questions asked again
and again
and again,
visibility decreasing.                 

The keel and mainstay remain:
family members recognized
by given names,
the adventures of her past
relatively coherent.

But what about when memory
erodes to flecks,
a broken chain of small islands
far from the mainland
and she sails on the distant horizon
waving, with an unsure smile 

                           life     a  d  r  i  f  t

and we, the surest anchors
to all that is forgotten
are left behind?