poems by dementia sufferer's

In response to our new book Patience, Advance Nurse Practitioner, Fiona Roscoe has written:

I don't think I have ever read a poem by a dementia sufferer before. Nobody usually has the time (or sadly patience) to sit and listen to their confusion. Here we are faced with disjointed sentences and isolated words which illustrate poignantly how lost these people must feel.

Fiona Roscoe RN DN MSc BSc(Hons) is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (Primary and Urgent Care)

Now my genius is gone

the brain in its
skull-like maze
now my genius has gone
it’s difficult to say
describe everything, list everything

lost everything
(want it back)
can’t remember why I’m here
memory caught in a trap
it stiffens

spaghetti maze
fingers thick
disturbed at all times
keep building roads at the end of a whip
people say they know me

I wonder at it
puzzled, caught in a trap
now my genius is some worthless song
I use a lever a little
and it comes back.

Group Poem