Powerful Poem Titled “They”
Once again, one of our community members writes a beautiful poem which points out just how much our words matter. Thank you Bob Savage!
A note from Bob Savage who is living with dementia –
Inspiration came from a recent national conference workshop that I attended where staff from a dementia care facility described what they are doing to improve communication with the people living in their facility. They used “THEY” at least 15 times when referring to the people living in their facility during their presentation. Each time they used the word “THEY” my stomach would cringe.
THEY
By Bob Savage
Who are these people who after one word we call them THEY
Did they have any choice as to why we call them THEY
Sometimes just one word (DEMENTIA) is why their THEY
Is a person any different after Dementia Diagnosed as THEY
We still love, hate, think, enjoy, cry, be depressed after THEY
We still love our family, friends, have enemies after THEY
We still love movies, parties, vacations, traveling after THEY
We still have emotional upsets, anger, frustrations after THEY
We do not like the loss of independence after THEY
We do not like the loss of social contact after THEY
We do not like people deciding and speaking for us after THEY
We do not like being a burden to those we love after THEY
We like to continue to speak for ourselves after our THEY
We like to be involved in all our decisions after our THEY
We like to set up new social contacts others after our THEY
We like to be accepted in our communities after our THEY
© of Bob Savage Living with Dementia 2018
If you would like to submit your poetry about dementia and caregiving make sure to include: The title of the piece Your by-line including your name as the author of the piece and any background or contact information you would like to share. Contact us
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