I don’t belong here.
He thinks he’s somebody.
They think I’m round the bend.
Here we go again.
Where’s my wife?
She’s dead, I think.
These aren’t my teeth.
She never comes, anyway.
a 33 word unspoken dialogue for Trifectra between an old man with dementia and an uncaring carer in a ‘home’.
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I think the four sentences to the left are a perfect story in monologue!
ohh! Beautifully done.
I used to volunteer in nursing homes. I think you nailed it.
makes me very sad
my daughters and I have had a discussion about what we want done should we lose our sensibilities . . . reminds me – youngest wants me to write my obituary now.
This was poignant and well done.
Tillybud wrote mine, ages ago. We’ve chosen the music for the funerals that we don’t want. I don’t mean that I want to live for ever, I just don’t want a lot of fuss, but I suppose the family will have something to say about that.
This is horrible! From your comment above – I can’t believe teeth would be handed out at random. Sterilized or not, that’s just wrong.
This is a sad story that happens so often..
It makes me SO MAD when I see people “un-caring” for those with dementia. It’s heartbreaking and sad and angering.
Well done… and very real… I’ve seen that in action, but the caregiver was not all that bad.
You don’t have to be bad to be stressed, overworked and underpaid, and I guess a lot of caregivers are all three. A reason, but not an excuse.
You surely captured the world of bewildered and uncaring. Thank you…may it only…but I fear not, be fiction.
Peace
Yes it’s fiction, but based on the Gerry Robinson TV series about alzheimers. It is part of a much longer dialogue poem that I don’t know what to do with.
Oh dear Viv. This is one reason why my father insisted on dying at home. He was the head Dr for the veterans here and I think saw a great deal of this. Fantastically powerful piece.
What an awful place to be for such a person-worse for the caregivers/family:-(
Whoa. This is intense for such a small piece!
How sad and frightening for the character and for any of us in some far away potential future. You never know what could be.
Heartbreaking. Loved this take on the prompt.
Dementia must be so frightening… I like the line, “These aren’t my teeth.”
That was real – a TV programme about care homes showed a nurse muddling up all the patients’ teeth and dishing them out willy nilly after sterilising.
It must be one of the hardest jobs in the world to do effectively and well.
I have this conversation with both of my parents. Very sad.
Powerful!
Very sad.
I like the rhythm of this. But I feel it may have better if you hadn’t told us who your characters were in the Author’s Note, or perhaps if you’d written it after the dialogue. It would have been interesting to interpret the characters on my own. But that’s just my opinion, and does not affect the power behind your words.
Well done.
You’re absolutely right. I’ve changed the order. Thank you.
Sad sad sad