Can You Remember?

By Lexie Willis ’26

I see you now,
but it’s different.
 
I’m unable to pinpoint,
when I lost you,
when you started to forget.
 
The lines etched in your face,
how did you used to smile?
Your head full of grays,
what color was your hair?
 
Your life was vivid,
how has it changed?
 
The color leached from your life,
 
to have spent a lifetime
learning,
loving,
living,
for you to stare at a picture
and not recognize your family .
 
I watch as you look at us.
 
As you look through the album,
a line of people you love.
Do you remember loving them?
 
A glimmer of recognition,
you smile familiarly.
 
I sit now.
I hold your hesitant hand.
Do you remember my name?