Old Year's Eve

the
sad
woman
cuddles new
year's eve dementia
weeping to leave hospital hope
to return to a place hoarded in a memory
she calls home–intruding on her bird pecked dinner tray I prod time, place, and president
she blinks then mumbles a missing son and dead daughter
time rivers no longer before
her drooling dark eyes
unsettled
puddles
of
fog