Poetry by Charlotte Hamrick

                Alexander Lyubavin CC



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FEEDING A LOVED ONE WITH DEMENTIA 

Lift the beige melamine cover
From the plate, exclaim
Over the pretty food colors
Squash the color of daffodils 
Beets glistening like rubies
A plot of mud colored meat 
(Don’t say this out loud)

Lift the spoon to her slightly parted
Lips, gently tap them
Tap, tap, tap 
Murmur encouragement, try to
Catch her eye
Smile and nod when you do
She smiles back
A smidgen is allowed in
As Alex reads the categories

Remember to remind her to swallow
With one eye on Jeopardy! and one
On the spoon, continue encouragement,
Say her name, exclaim over the delicious 
Smell of the food
(Meat, not so much - don’t say this out loud)

Wheel of Fortune appears, talk
About Vanna's Dress the same shade
As the beets, coax a bite in that falls
Back out onto her chest

Replace the bib with a clean one
Take a break
Worry about what will happen if she continues 
Not to eat
Stare out the window at the darkness
Of trees against the twilight sky
Pick up the spoon

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The Delta of Me

There were days I couldn’t lift 
my eyelids, much less the wholeness

of my journey-flayed body.
The loneliness, the lies, the years 

of repression pressed on me 
turning effort into jelly. All the days

& years & decades hidden 
in my heart erupted, leaked
 
unwanted blood, flowed hot 
& scared as the moment of their births.

As much as I crave 
to feel forgiveness, resentment rises, 

a river on the cusp of flood. Each overflow 
deposits another layer of sediment, 

another crust to crack. They say time 
heals all wounds but I say 

the scabs remain, offerings to phantom 
fingernails scratching my flesh. 

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Charlotte Hamrick’s creative work has been published in numerous online and print journals, most recently including The Citron Review and Emerge Journal. She’s been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction 2021, and was a Finalist for Micro Madness 2020. She reads for  Fractured Lit and was the former CNF Editor for Barren Magazine. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets where she sometimes does things other than read and write. 
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