A Message

By Olive M. Ritch

One of the best of minds
destroyed by dementia

does not howl on her knees
in the street, does not masturb*te

in the magnolia living-room,
is not dragged off the roof-top,

naked; no, she leaves a message
on her daughter’s answer-phone

saying: there’s an echo,
an echo in my head.

This Poem Features In: