change
slow
decline
pernicious
incremental steal
a malicious hand swirling strands
incoherent trickles that lead to nowhere but grief
wandering directionless through timelessness    memories without accessible keys
it takes absence to magnify the descent to murky streams    the braided obscurity & discernible drift into wisps of fine mist
so with convulsive conversation caught in voids you know the inevitable cost
but there are smiles    warmth & rays of illumination
as you meander through past miles
brief recognition
once reason
& rhyme
now
lost